Hoverboards have been hitting the headlines lately as the self-balancing scooters are becoming quite popular in the UK. Recently though, they have been blazing their trail in more ways than just metaphorically.
Over the last couple of days two reported incidents have found their way onto the internet.
Footage recorded by Mr Cade, of Gulf Shores, Alabama, USA shows his hoverboard going up in flames. Mr Cade said he was riding his new board when the device exploded into fire directly beneath his feet. “I came outside turned it on, came down the sidewalk not even a 100 feet, and it exploded,” Mr Cade later told local news network, WKRG.
Luckily Mr Cade was not injured and managed to extinguish the inferno with a few glasses of water.
“Batteries started shooting out of it – you would not expect a fire like that to come out of a little thing like that. I was not expecting something like that.”
Mr Cade is going through the refund process with Amazon.
Obviously this was a very distressing experience for Mr Cade, and, when asked about what he will do with his refund he revealed he will be spending it on a brand new hoverboard!
He told US news site WKRG: “They’re so fun – I would take more precaution with the batteries because I think it was the batteries that blew up. “
Now, this was not the only incident reported in the last week.
According to reports, a family in Louisiana had quite the serious incident with one of the boards. The hoverboard the family bought for their 12-year old son started to spark whilst charging, and, as the mother Jessica Horne explained, “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.”
The official result of the investigation into the fire has not been published yet
The Lafitte fire department is not sure what could have caused the hoverboard to explode and it is entirely possible that these were just defective units, but, perhaps, you may want to think about these possibilities before purchasing one.
The boards debuted in China and have become increasingly popular in the United States and UK after multiple celebrity appearances. They range in price from £300 to £800 and, based on a law that is over 180 years old, are illegal to use in public in the UK.
A Met spokesman said: “We would remind the public that it is an offence under section 72 of the Highway Act 1835 to wilfully ride on the footway, and where necessary, officers will speak to people using these devices advising them of the rules.”