A hoverboard exploded in Bavaria and caused a fire. Two women were injured. There was damage of 300,000 euros.
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Hoverboard explodes, two injured
© Jonathan Lingel/Shutterstock.com
The Bavarian police reports a fire caused by a hoverboard. Accordingly, the owners of the hoverboard were charging its battery when, according to the 15-year-old resident, the battery of the hoverboard charging at the socket exploded on April 5, 2022 at around 9 p.m. The incident happened in Neustadt near Coburg in the Wildenheid district.
The flames went straight to the couch and in no time the entire living room was on fire, according to the police. The 15-year-old and her mother were able to leave the family home in the street “Rödenauen” in time, but suffered from smoke inhalation and therefore had to be treated medically. Around 85 emergency services from the local fire brigade, the rescue service and the police rushed to the scene of the fire.
According to initial findings, the material damage caused to the property is 300,000 euros. The fire investigators from Coburg are currently assuming a technical defect on the hoverboard as the cause of the fire. The Coburg criminal police took over the investigation.
Time and again hoverboards, e-scooters and e-bikes lead to fires
Exploding or burning hoverboards have repeatedly led to fires in the past, for example in Cologne. Lately, however, fires caused by hoverboards have been quiet. This is probably mainly due to the fact that hoverboards are generally no longer trendy. Instead, for some time now everything has revolved around e-scooters, which have now also made it into the accident statistics:
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An e-scooter also led to an apartment fire in Munich, in which ten people were injured. In another case, an e-bike battery destroyed an entire apartment.
In the US it’s been around for a long time
problems
Exploding hoverboards were mainly reported from the USA. Since the beginning of December 2015, reports of exploding hoverboards and the consequential damage caused by them, such as completely burned-out apartments, have been piling up on the other side of the Atlantic. Amazon therefore decided to stop selling these extremely dangerous means of transport via its online platform. Amazon compensated customers who had already bought a hoverboard through Amazon.
The hoverboard panic reached its unintentionally comical peak in a safety recommendation from the US consumer product safety agency CPSC: They jokingly advised always having a fire extinguisher handy when driving around with the hoverboard. And to protect the body with helmet and protectors. In addition, hoverboards should only be used far away from roads.
How do you extinguish burning batteries and electric cars? That’s what the fire department says!
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