A family in Utah endured a frightening moment when a hoverboard caught fire and exploded in their home. According to ABC4, the scary moment was caught on camera showing a young boy barely escaping the explosion as he ran past the hoverboard. Tamilisa Miner said her son saw “huge billowing electrical smoke” and told his mom something was wrong with his hoverboard.
Miner said she knew the product was about to blow up and moved quickly away from it with her children, with the hoverboard exploding just as her son ran past it.
Scary Incident
Miner said she dodged exploding batteries shooting out of the hoverboard as her children screamed for their mom. There was no time to think, and she said she and her husband grabbed fire extinguishers and quickly put the fire out. Firefighters told Miner that they wouldn’t have been able to save the house had Miner and her husband not used the fire extinguishers in time. Miner has pleaded with parents with hoverboards in their homes not to charge them at night or inside the house.
Fortunately, no one was injured in this hoverboard explosion. Thanks to the parents’ presence of mind, the property damage in the home also appears to have been minimized.
Hoverboard Dangers
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), more than 250 hoverboard incidents related to fires, overheating, or explosions have occurred since 2015. In March 2017, a 2-year-old girl and a 10-year-old girl died in a house fire ignited by a hoverboard in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. CPSC also estimates 13 burn injuries, three smoke inhalation injuries, and more than $4 million in hoverboard-related property damage.
Experts say the problem is not with the hoverboards but rather the quality of the lithium-ion batteries used in the devices. Such batteries, often made with substandard parts, are known as “low-cost li-ion batteries” by most in the industry. These are not precisely knock-offs or copies but mass-manufactured cells subjected to little or no quality control.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a hoverboard accident, you may be able to seek and obtain compensation for damages, including medical expenses, lost wages, hospitalization, property damage, pain and suffering, and emotional distress. Contact an experienced product defect attorney who will fight for your rights and help hold the at-fault parties accountable would also be in your best interest.
Source: https://www.abc4.com/news/local-news/hoverboard-explosion-in-lehi-home-caught-on-camera/
