They may be the hottest item on the street but West Yorkshire fire experts are warning of the dangers of hoverboards.
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service issued the warning after attending serious fire involving a hoverboard, a kind of self-balancing scooter, in Wyke, on Friday evening.
Shortly before 9pm the fire took hold in the living room of a property in St Mary’s Drive where three youngsters reported seeing a hoverboard, which was on charge, set alight.
Fortunately, the eldest, a 13-year-old boy, Jibril Muhammed Faris, had remembered fire service advice from a school talk and led the other two children, a nine-year-old boy and eight-year-old girl, to an upstairs bedroom where he dialled 999.
Three fire crews arrived on the scene and firefighters put out the blaze.
The subsequent fire investigation found the origin of the fire was the hoverboard, which was connected to its dedicated charging unit and was plugged into a wall socket which was in the ‘on’ position.
The exact cause of the fire is difficult to confirm due to the fire damage that the hoverboard sustained.
However, the brigade said the most likely cause of the fire was from the overheating of the lithium batteries which have exploded due to them not being configured correctly, or they had overheated to the point of igniting the hoverboard unit’s internal components due to the cut-off switch within the unit failing.
Fire Investigator, Station Manager Mark Helliwell added: “Although hoverboard fires have recently hit the national headlines, this is the first one that we have recorded in West Yorkshire.
“Whilst we do not wish to scaremonger, there are simple steps people can take to reduce the risk.
“Ultimately this property did not have working smoke alarms and we cannot stress to people enough how important this is.
“Having a fire evacuation lan can also save you vital seconds in the event of a blaze like this.”
