Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
HERRIMAN — It happened again. Firefighters were called to a fire that was caused by a hoverboard that was charging and somehow burst into flames.
"Every so often, those chargers overheat and just the batteries explode inside them," Patrick Costin, public information officer with the Unified Fire Authority, said.
The latest incident happened at a Herriman home Thursday evening.
A family was charging a hoverboard in their garage when they started smelling smoke.
When flames began to burn, the family got out of the house and called 911.
"The family had just purchased it. Plugged it in to try and get it charged up. Next thing you know, saw a whole bunch of smoke," Costin said.
Firefighters put out the fire before the flames could spread to the rest of the house.
However, the news of what happened quickly spread to the Miner family.
"Can't believe it happened again," Craig Miner said.
"Shocked," Craig's wife, Tamilisa, said.
A hoverboard charging in their Lehi home this past summer also burst into flames. A home surveillance video showed when it started to smoke, and when the fire started, the explosion sent burning batteries flying into the air.
"We had full-on huge flames everywhere," Tamilisa said.
The Miners spoke to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission about their incident. They also did research on hoverboard fires and couldn't believe what they found.
"I found we were about the 216th hoverboard fire," Tamilisa said. "There had been recalls, but years ago."
However, these types of hoverboard fire are still happening.
Even though chances are small it will happen, the Miners have made it their goal to let families know it can happen. Like at her home last summer, and now the Herriman home Thursday night.
"Maybe yours will be fine, but maybe not," she said. "And that's the thing is you just don't know."
