Burning hoverboard explodes
The Taplin family was minutes away from a hoverboard exploding in their home after it caught on fire.
Their home at Isla Bank, Southland, still smells of smoke after the board caught fire about 12.30am on Saturday. Ian Taplin picked it up and threw it outside, clear of the house.
His wife, Kerry, couldn’t believe what was happening.
‘‘Soon after he threw it it exploded in different directions . . . I’ve never seen anything like it,’’ Kerry said.
‘‘It was a vile toxic smell.’’ Her son, Charlie, 11, was charging the board in his bedroom. He and his mother were the first two to be woken by smoke and a hissing noise coming out of the board.
Smoke alarms were going off, while the Taplins’ other son, Jack, opened doors through the house to give Ian a clear run outside with the burning board.
The fire service was not called but the Taplins reckon a fault in the battery caused the fire. A few burn and singe marks on the carpet are the only damage to the
‘‘. . .he threw it it exploded in different directions . . .’’ Kerry Taplin
house.
Southland fire service investigator Murray Milne-Maresca said it was common for brigades to respond to fires originating from battery-powered devices. He added there were different reasons for devices igniting, such as the wrong battery charger being used and devices not properly ventilated and overheating.
Old and faulty batteries can go on fire when being charged.
‘‘We’ve had a lot of them [fires originating from devices] . . . anything will catch fire if it overheats,’’ Milne-Maresca said.
Hoverboards around the world were often in the news for causing fires between 2014-17.
Consumer NZ’s only information on hoverboards relates to a 2015 post on its website from The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) stating the boards were a fire risk due to faulty batteries and chargers.