SEATTLE, Dec. 9 (UPI) — A Seattle mall was evacuated when a hoverboard “exploded” at a kiosk — the second such incident in recent weeks.
Shoppers at The Outlet Collection said an employee at a kiosk selling the self-balancing scooters called hoverboards was demonstrating how one works when another of the boards suddenly exploded.
“It just exploded — just combusted into flames for no reason,” Kelli Steiner, who recorded video of the fire, told KOMO-TV. “The alarms went off. Smoke everywhere. Just a really strong smell.”
Steiner said the scooter was not in use at the time of the incident.
“For no apparent reason, it just exploded,” Steiner said. “No one was on it. No one was touching it.”
“The smoke was real bad, and it was a toxic smell,” Steiner told KIRO-TV.
Mall workers used fire extinguishers to put out the flames.
Kelly Tyson, a spokeswoman at the Valley Regional Fire Authority, said investigating firefighters believe the device “overheated.”
“It had been taken outside before we arrived,” Tyson said.
The incident was not without precedent.
Jessica Horne of Lafitte, Louisiana, said her house caught fire Nov. 21 when her 12-year-old son’s hoverboard spontaneously caught fire while it was charging.
“It was like fireworks,” Horne said, “the middle part of the board — just ‘poof.’”
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