An Owensboro, Kentucky man was sent to the hospital for second-degree burns last weekend, when his e-cig battery exploded like a firework in his pocket. And he hasn’t been the only one with such luck.
Surveillance footage from a Shell petrol station’s security camera caught the incident on tape Saturday morning. The man was about to pay at the register, when a Roman candle-like blast burst from his pants and sent sparks flying. He ran out onto the footpath, wrestled off his pants and was then blasted by a petrol station attendant with a fire extinguisher.
It’s not the first time an e-cigarette battery has been reported to explode. Just a couple weeks ago, a Texas man also suffered serious burns with a spare e-cig battery went boom in his pants pocket. He, too, was at a convenience store, when the battery blew up and fused part of his jeans to his leg. Yet another man earlier this month in Texas suffered burns, his first degree, when a vape battery blew up in his pants.
We’ll have to see if e-cig batteries, like hoverboards, will soon be banned from train stations, planes, universities and anywhere else that isn’t keen on sudden explosions. The cause of the e-cig blasts is still unclear.
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