Another fire, E-cig exploded, ignited a gas can stored inside the trailer.... Family of 5 lost everything...

[four2109]

I miss those days when we heard about ecigs on NPR, googled, wound up here, and learned the basics of LI battery and nicotine safety. My corner store sells cigalikes, nicquid and Ego knock-offs. It's a disaster waiting to happen. That's capitalism.

batteries do explode and nicotine is poisonous.

That said, every explosion I have read about was either an Ego style or stacked unprotected batteries.

An ECF forum member's dog died from nicotine poisoning several years ago. Now we have reports of children ingesting nicotine.

How do we educate the public so ignorance isn't used against us??

Isn't that an industry responsibility??

Owensboro family loses all in mobile home fire - 14NEWS, the Tri-State's News & Weather Leader

 

[choochoogranny]

Tobacco cigarettes cause house fires all the time. Get CDC's recent records on what mostly posions children. Ecigs are relatively new and have great enemies with deep pockets against it. It makes the news.

Individual vapers can rebut with correct information by writing cogent letters to the editor in their local papers to educate the uninformed every time one of these stories appears. Mention E-CigaretteForum.com and CASAA.org as places to get a wealth of information and recent studies and test results.

 

[csardaz]

Well that article doesn't say anything about a gas can stored inside. Storing gas cans inside is a really bad idea and should - does - have idiot-lablels prominantly posted.

LI-Ion batteries are even more dangerous used in packs of 4 or more like in electric drills, e-bikes, RC toys (big boys toys) and electric cars. In fact each of those cause hundreds of fires a year, even with engineered battery-management units, UL ratings and so-forth. But you don't hear about them much on the news. Is it because they aren't usually inside the house? or because they make smaller, less severe, fires(not)? Because the users are more aware of the dangers? or because they aren't e-cigs? Cellphones probably start more fires than e-cigs just cause there are like 500,000,000 of them - each with a battery - even with a 1:1mm fail rate thats 500 fails. Battery-related fires are inevitable - probably hundreds a year spark a hydrogen blast fire just jump-starting cars.

I expect we don't hear every time a dog dies from chewing an e-juice bottle. Mine are just the right chewyness and size for a dog to want to teeth on.

 

[four2109]

I don't need to get anybody's records. Just google ecig fire. It's happening and it doesn't matter who you blame it on.
A 3.5 billion dollar industry should be able to educate their consumers!
Vendors are happy to have everyone jump on the bandwagon even if they don't understand the risks.
$$$$$$.

 

[four2109]

Well that article doesn't say anything about a gas can stored inside. Storing gas cans inside is a really bad idea and should - does - have idiot-lablels prominantly posted.

LI-Ion batteries are even more dangerous used in packs of 4 or more like in electric drills, e-bikes, RC toys (big boys toys) and electric cars. In fact each of those cause hundreds of fires a year, even with engineered battery-management units, UL ratings and so-forth. But you don't hear about them much on the news. Is it because they aren't usually inside the house? or because they make smaller, less severe, fires(not)? Because the users are more aware of the dangers? or because they aren't e-cigs? Cellphones probably start more fires than e-cigs just cause there are like 500,000,000 of them - each with a battery - even with a 1:1mm fail rate thats 500 fails. Battery-related fires are inevitable - probably hundreds a year spark a hydrogen blast fire just jump-starting cars.

I expect we don't hear every time a dog dies from chewing an e-juice bottle. Mine are just the right chewyness and size for a dog to want to teeth on.

We probably don't hear about them because if my Verizon HTC cell phone burns my house down, I know who to call and they are going to settle. The same with Batt power tools and robo vacuum cleaners. Who are you going to call when your ecig blows up?

 

[Kent C]

"The fire's cause is still under investigation, Newman said.

An open can of gas was inside the trailer, and an electronic cigarette had been laid down, he said. The cigarette may have ignited the fumes.

Toomey said he was unable to get insurance on the mobile home. He was buying it from a woman, and he has been unable to find her to get the property transferred to his name."

http://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/2014/12/14/fire-claims-mobile-home-belongings-a-578299.html

 

[four2109]

If this is a 3.5 billion $ industry, $1.5 billion is being sold to clueless consumers that will never come to a forum and learn about the product they are using.
Those are the people that buy an Ego knockoff and plug it into their cig lighter plug to charge... and it overheats and launches into the car seat in the back...

 

[choochoogranny]

Well, Four, guess the first thing you'll do is call your attorney? But, since you know how all batteries can be dangerous, I will assume you don't have any in your abode to take the risk of explosion and fire. Safety first!

 

[four2109]

"The fire's cause is still under investigation, Newman said.

An open can of gas was inside the trailer, and an electronic cigarette had been laid down, he said. The cigarette may have ignited the fumes.

Toomey said he was unable to get insurance on the mobile home. He was buying it from a woman, and he has been unable to find her to get the property transferred to his name."

http://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/2014/12/14/fire-claims-mobile-home-belongings-a-578299.html

Good link Kent, thanks. The local report said the ecig exploded and ignited the gas can. I don't know who would have, or admit to having an open gas can in a residence, so we have to consider the source on that.

 

[four2109]

Well, Four, guess the first thing you'll do is call your attorney? But, since you know how all batteries can be dangerous, I will assume you don't have any in your abode to take the risk of explosion and fire. Safety first!

You obviously aren't capable of a discussion on this issue so I won't bother beyond this.

 

[DrMA]

What? You mean I shouldn't charge Li batteries between my 5-gal gas can and spare propane tank? But that spot has the best lighting in the whole house!

 

[four2109]

What? You mean I shouldn't charge Li batteries between my 5-gal gas can and spare propane tank? But that spot has the best lighting in the whole house!

Make jokes about it. But you know who will get the media attention. And they should. They buy these devices, with no instructions, and you think it's OK that they start fires.
It's not OK!
What other consumer product does this??
Butane lighters are designed like toys and kids set fires, and BIC takes care of it.
Ecig vendors need to step up to the table. Protect their market. Educate consumers.
I'm tired of the user community being expected to defend the market for the vendors.
We already do their marketing and customer support!

 

[readeuler]

When will the madness end!? With gas prices on the way down, ecig explosions that ignite cans of gasoline stored in the home can only go up!

Or is it down, since I don't need to hoard gas anymore?

 

[four2109]

When will the madness end!? With gas prices on the way down, ecig explosions that ignite cans of gasoline stored in the home can only go up!

Or is it down, since I don't need to hoard gas anymore?

I just don't think it's something to joke about. I've never lived in a trailer, been responsible for lawn maintenance.....

Ooops, had to rethink that. I did live in a trailer once, but wasn't responsible for the lawn.

 

[Stosh]

If you ever read the instruction manual that comes with your cell phone, tablet, drill or electric toothbrush, it does contain battery warnings. Having them included on the li-ion batteries we use would make a lot of sense.

But to put this story in perspective (no, I don't expect the ANTZ to do it), Google (OWENSBORO, KY trailer fire cigarette -e-cigarette -electronic). That is references of trailer fires for that town alone, including cigarette but excluding e-cigarette and electronic from the results....it returns About 216,000 results. The same search using house instead of trailer. About 812,000 results.

 

[Lessifer]

Are you looking for some way to inform everyone about battery safety, or are you trying to find out who these people should sue? Not that it would do any harm to include battery warnings, I'm just not sure how much good it would do, since most if not all users would throw them away without reading them.

 

[four2109]

If you ever read the instruction manual that comes with your cell phone, tablet, drill or electric toothbrush, it does contain battery warnings. Having them included on the li-ion batteries we use would make a lot of sense.

But to put this story in perspective (no, I don't expect the ANTZ to do it), Google (OWENSBORO, KY trailer fire cigarette -e-cigarette -electronic). That is references of trailer fires for that town alone, including cigarette but excluding e-cigarette and electronic from the results....it returns About 216,000 results. The same search using house instead of trailer. About 812,000 results.

I didn't get the results you implied and I did try... because it was you Stosh... Maybe you can give me something more specific....
You have been around here long enough to see that this has been ignored by the vendors.
The guy who blew his tongue off in Florida was using a forum vendor stacked batt mod. We know that. I'm just saying it's time for the vendors to get in the game and protect their market. I'm not going to do it for them.

 

[Kent C]

First we don't know how the battery exploded (or if it did, for that matter). The 'elephant in the room' in this case was the 'open can of gasoline'. Almost anything can set off gas fumes - a spark, a pilot light. And the ecig might have been used as a 'excuse' for something more obvious. We may never know unless there's an arson investigation. Maybe the guy didn't like the fact that he couldn't get in touch with the owner from whom he was attempting to buy? Lots of different scenarios and unless someone is 'in town' or 'in on police/fire investigations, we'll likely never hear what happened.

Every Joyetech battery I've purchased has had a manual and safety instructions - basically use a joyetech charger. There's not much more one can say on that. Non-proprietary batts are a different manner. The one 'accident' we had in 2009 with a Chuck was someone who attempted to recharge a non-chargeable battery - he took a chunk out of his cheek, iirc.

Every cell phone and laptop manual has battery safety notes somewhere. It's the consumer that is responsible unless there is a flaw in the product, and we really have no idea that this was the case here.

 

[faeriekitsune]

I've lived in a trailer before (it's common cheap housing here), and never stored gas cans or propane inside. That's just asking for trouble! I never stored or operated anything that could cause a spark outside near the 500lb propane tank either! Also, most chargers were either on the kitchen counter or in the bedroom and one would hope you don't have gasoline in either of those places.

Also the stories are unclear. One report says explosion. One report says an ecig was "laid down" nearby. The only person home was a 15yr old, so let's hope it wasn't actively being used. Supposedly there was an "open container" of gas inside. Neither story had many details other than "it was such a tragedy, they didn't have insurance". It's almost like they're milking the event to fire up public opinion and just using a convenient scapegoat as cause of fire.

If you look at the (only) picture released of the property after the fire, most of the damage is towards the middle. That's where the kitchen most likely would have been in that style trailer.

Conclusion? This whole shenanigan seems to be a lesson in Darwin's Law.

And before anybody gets mad at me, let me explain my beliefs. .... there should be less lawsuits and media outrage about events like this, more Darwin Award plaques. Of course, I will concede stupidity (not fate or bad luck) must be proven to be the cause of an accident to qualify for award. I count storing a known hazardous, explosive fumed material inside a dwelling as stupidity. It was an accident waiting for a cell phone/cigarette/static spark/ecig/etc.

 

[Dixie1954]

I have lived in trailer homes in the past.There was a storage shed that I could keep lawn maintenance stuff in. I now live in an apartment and I signed the rules to rent here it says no flammable liquids can be stored inside the unit. I would say this is a no brainer but to some I guess it is.