(PHOTO AND STORY: KHQ.COM)
You’ve heard of cell phones exploding, but what about e-cigarettes? It’s happened to people all across the country, and now to someone in Coeur d’Alene.
Jackie Stoddard was sleeping as her husband’s e-cigarette was charging near the bed.
“I woke up to what I thought was lightning in the house. The sound kind of shocked me,” she says.
She then felt heat and as soon as she opened her eyes, she saw flames in front of her face. She jumped out of the bed, panicked, and managed to put out the fire with a cup of water in the room and her hands. She thankfully wasn’t injured.
“It's very scary,” she says.
That’s because her husband has left the e-cigarette plugged in when they weren’t home before.
“If that had happened, as quickly as it blew up, and as much damage that it did, it probably was only 2 minutes in time definitely the house would've gone up in flames,” she says.
In the last report by the US Fire Administration, they found 25 reported e-cigarette explosions between 2009 and 2014. Eighty percent of those happened with the e-cigarette was charging and most of them were related to the battery malfunctioning.
Now that Jackie knows it can happen, she’s going to keep an eye on anything that’s charging, and hopes others are more careful too.
“I would be incredibly careful with anything like that,” she says.
If you use an e-cigarette and it explodes, the Food and Drug Administration wants you to report it. You can do so here: https://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/ProductsIngredientsComponents/ucm539362.htm
The FDA is also taking public comment on battery safety until May 22: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/04/2016-31857/battery-safety-concerns-in-electronic-nicotine-delivery-systems-public-workshop-establishment-of-a
For more information: https://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/ProductsIngredientsComponents/ucm456610.htm
For the US Fire Administration’s report: https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/electronic_cigarettes.pdf