Boy, 3, suffers second-degree burns after mom's e-cigarette explodes in charger and his car seat catches fire
By David Mccormack
A three-year-old boy suffered first- and second-degree burns after his mom’s e-cigarette exploded causing his car seat to catch fire.
Mom Kinzie Barlow was driving near her home in Mount Pleasant, Utah, on Friday when the incident occurred.
According to Barlow, the White Rhino e-cigarette exploded while it was charging, causing a white-hot copper coil to shoot out that bounced off the ceiling and landed in her son Khonor’s car seat.
‘There was a big bang, and kind of a flash, and there’s smoke everywhere,’ Barlow told FOX 13 News. The coil quickly burned through the fabric cover of the car seat, melting the hard plastic and sending flames shooting up the little boy’s body.
‘Seeing your child on fire and hearing them scream “Help me!” is pretty terrifying,’ said Barlow. She tried to smother the fire with her shirt sleeve, but when that also caught fire she was forced to grab her iced coffee and pour it on her son to extinguish the flames.
Fortunately Khonor suffering only minor burns to his elbow, lower back and his bottom. Barlow, who was using the charger provided with the device when she bought it, has said she will never buy one again. Mail Online has reached out to White Rhino for comment on the incident. According to the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association (TVECA), there are currently more than 3.5million Americans puffing on the devices.
As e-cigarettes have grown in popularity there have been an increasing number of incidents concerning their safety. In other instances devices have exploded because the cigarette have been mismatched with the wrong type of charger or because it has been left in its USB port for too long and overcharged. White Rhino’s website features advice on care and maintenance for the lithium-ion batteries inside the cigarettes.
It includes a warning that they the battery shouldn’t be placed in direct sunlight and that they can ‘get hot, explode or ignite and cause serious injury.'
In October, the Food and Drug Administration plans to roll out a comprehensive policy to regulate the $1billion e-cigarette business, but it is expected that the new rules would pertain mostly to nicotine levels in the devices rather than matters of fire safety.
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