The US plans to formally recall the Galaxy Note 7 and is telling consumers to power down and cease charging the phones immediately.

The recommendation came through a US Consumer Product Safety Commission statement today, which referenced the various fires that have been linked to battery issues with Samsung's new phone. "These incidents have occurred while charging and during normal use, which has led us to call for consumers to power down their Note 7s," the commission writes.

It put the recommendation more bluntly in a tweet:

Samsung echoed the CPSC in its own statement, saying, "We are asking users to power down their Galaxy Note 7s and exchange them now."

Samsung began recalling the phones worldwide last Friday. That wasn't a formal recall, however, and there's a critical difference: once recalled through the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Note 7 will be illegal to sell. For the past week, that hasn't been the case, despite the potential danger to buyers.

Now the commission is working with Samsung to initialize an actual recall "as soon as possible." Meanwhile, Samsung is preparing to ship out Galaxy Notes that won't explode.

Update September 9th, 5:05PM ET: This story has been updated with comment from Samsung.