Shrapnel from vape pen blast kills US TV producer
A TELEVISION producer in Florida died when his vape pen exploded and drove shrapnel into his skull.
It is the first e-cigarette related death in the US.
Tallmadge Waksman “Wake” D’elia, 38, was found dead on May 5 when firefighters were called to a blaze at his home in the St Petersburg area.
His body had 80 per cent burns, but a medical examiner’s report concluded that he had been fatally wounded by two pieces of the vape pen that had become embedded in his skull, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The cause of death was recorded as “projectile wound of head”.
Mr D’elia’s father, Christopher, told ABC Action News: “This is a terrible shock. A 38-year-old should not be gone. His mother and I are devastated.”
He described his son, known as Wake, as a “talented” and “smart” young man, who “loved his job”.
ABC said that the vape pen was made by a company called Smok-e Mountain. A company representative told the station that its devices did not explode, but added there were safety concerns over other companies cloning its batteries.
The US Fire Administration says there were 195 separate incidents in the US of e-cigarettes exploding or catching fire between 2009 and 2016.
Incidents of e-cigarettes exploding have also been reported in the UK. In 2014, a vape device blew up and sent shards of metal tearing into a Lancashire man’s limbs.
In the same year, an incident in which e-cigarettes exploded in a man’s pocket and caused a van to burst into flames was captured on CCTV.