Hoverboard blamed for fire which kills child
Concerns have already been raised concerning fire risks posed by hoverboards, that is self-balancing electric scooters (see pinfa Newsletter n°60), resulting from overheating of lithium ion batteries.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission published a product recall in July 2016 concerning 500 000 hoverboards from 10 different companies, in particular Swagway with 267 000 recalls. A house fire on 10th March 2017, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in which a young child died, thought to have been caused by a Hoverboard of to date unidentified brand, has led US authorities to request that owners of such products again verify that their machine is not one of those concerned by the product recalls.
Fox News 13/3/17 “Are Hoverboards Safe? Feds Urge Caution After Deadly Pennsylvania Fire” http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/03/13/are-hoverboards-safe-feds-urge-caution-after-deadly-pennsylvania-fire.html and CPSC hoverboard recall n° 16-218, 16/7/16 “Self-Balancing Scooters/Hoverboards Recalled by 10 Firms Due to Fire Hazard” https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2016/self-balancing-scooters-hoverboards-recalled-by-10-firms