There have been many incidents where battery operated gadgets malfunction. Everybody must have heard of electronic cigarettes or mobile phones blowing up while in use.
The newest addition to the list is hoverboards blowing up while someone was riding them. This just goes to show that the most popular gift of the holiday season is also the most dangerous one.
Jessica Horne, a mother of a 12-year-old boy Hayden, wanted to surprise her son, so she gave him a "Fit Turbo" hoverboard just in time for Thanksgiving this year. She never expected what would happen next.
The hoverboard exploded in her son's room, and then started to burn the entire house. This was allegedly due to a malfunction in the board. Horne started a GoFundMe page to ask people help so she and her family can have their house repaired.
On the page description, Jessica wrote," My son had just received his Bday present on Friday, couldn't wait till 7 a.m. on Saturday to ride it. He was thrilled with his new hover-board, self balancing electric scooter. When it ran out of charge, he brought it inside, put it on the charger. As I walked past his room I saw it began to shoot sparks & within seconds it was in flames, within minutes the entire room was in flames."
Hayden was naturally excited, like everybody else who was entranced by how cool having a hoverboard is, and having one for yourself is like a dream come true. The 12-year-old plugged the hoverboard to the charger that came with it, and when it was done charging, tried it in his room. When the battery ran low, that's when the disaster happened.
"It was like fireworks," Horne told WGNO, "the middle part of the board - just 'poof.'"
This is not the first time someone experienced a hoverboard-related accident recorded. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has received eight reported injuries, all of which linked to hoverboard that has resulted to hospitalization in the last three months. Most of the reported injuries were falls, as if having a gazillion videos of how not to ride the hoverboard isn't enough. This is also not the first fire-related hoverboard incident to be reported.
According to Timothy Cade, his hoverboar's lithium batteries started shooting out of its side while he was on it. He quickly ran to get get his phone and recorded what seemed to be a "fireworks display" in front of their house.
Take a look at the video below.
