Short answer, YES.

Middle answer, faraday bags.

Also they emit a lot of radiation so don't keep them near you, especially when sleeping.

"That, Detective, is the right question"

Not like this, no.

These pagers were either manufactured for or intercepted by IDF / mossad and modified specifically for this with added explosives and a special board to trigger these all at once while still maintaining regular functionality. (Think about it, you would need these thousands of pagers to be passed out and put into use and be functional and not just blow up the first time somebody turned it on and received a message. If the first few blew up the rest would get thrown away)

Your phone doesn't have c4 in it.

Could your phone be back door to make the battery overheat/catch fire? Almost certainly.

These pagers didn't Just catch fire... They exploded. Pagers usually use one AA or AAA battery That usually lasts for 1 to 3 months depending on usage.

Found a video of one exploding https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/30487383/hezbollah-fighters-injured-walkie-talkies-explode/

Why not? Or electric cars?

Maybe the Samsung 7 or 9 or whatever it was way back was a prototype for this. Remember they were exploding and catching on fire and banned from planes.

Edit to add article. : https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/14/497999029/samsung-galaxy-note-7-banned-on-planes-including-in-checked-bags