iPhone's Siri helps man escape house explosion with few injuries

Wilmot (US): A New Hampshire man who was injured in a house explosion is thanking Siri for saving his life.

Christopher Beaucher says he was checking on his mother's vacant cottage in Wilmot on May 1 when he saw something suspicious and went inside. He said when he switched on a light, the house exploded.

"The whole place caught fire," Beaucher said. "Part of it collapsed while I was in it during the initial explosion, so I couldn't really tell where I was."

Beaucher's face and hands were badly burned. He grabbed his cellphone but was unable to dial because of his injuries. He says he somehow asked his iPhone's voice-controlled virtual assistant Siri to call 911, believing he was going into shock.

A spokeswoman for Apple said Monday that statistics on Siri being used for emergencies weren't available, but noted some recent emergencies in which it was used.

Those include three boaters off the Florida coast in April who used the water-resistant phone when their craft capsized; a 4-year-old boy from London who used his mother's thumb to unlock her iPhone and called Siri after she collapsed at home in March; and a man in Vancouver who collapsed, became paralysed, and was able to use his tongue to use Siri.

Beaucher is undergoing treatment for his injuries and says he hopes to return to his job as a cook and tend to his farm. "I'm very, very, extremely lucky to be alive," he said.

The New Hampshire state fire marshal's office is investigating the explosion.