A Grade 8 student in Maine suffered burns after her cellphone caught fire in her pocket while she was at school.

Kennebunk middle school principal Jeff Rodman told the Portland Press Herald that the girl heard a popping sound Friday morning and smoke started billowing around her.

Boys were herded from the room so the 14-year-old girl could shed her flaming pants. She also did the "stop, drop and roll" move to help put out the fire.

She was treated at a hospital.

Her mother had given her the Apple iPhone 5C two months earlier.

CBC News has requested information from Apple about possible causes.

iPhone fires rare

Reports of spontaneous combustion of devices like the iPhone are extremely rare.

In 2011, Australian transportation officials investigated after an iPhone 4 started glowing red and spewing smoke on a flight. It was extinguished by a flight attendant.

A report released in 2012 following an investigation found that a screw had been misplaced in the phone's battery bay during a repair at an "unauthorized maintenance facility," leading to battery damage and internal short circuit that caused it to heat up rapidly.