CHARLOTTE — Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere: laptops, flashlights, yard equipment, and the list goes on. They’re rechargeable and reliable -- but they can also be dangerous, and you may not realize you even have the batteries.
Jody Bourgoyne’s home had a fire. She says firefighters told her it started with a lithium-ion battery charger for a scooter.
“I screamed and I just threw the fire extinguisher and ran because I knew it was bigger than what I could handle,” she said. “It’s like before you buy something, you’re going to have to think, ‘Hmm, I could possibly lose everything, including a child, but is it worth having this scooter for?’ I don’t think so.”
Firefighters were able to pull out baby photos of her children.
But the family lost a lot in the fire, including a pet.
“You always think, you know, well, that’s not going to happen to me. You know, what are the chances? But it can,” she said.
South Charlotte resident Jeff Freeman told Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke he was coming in the garage “and I open the garage door. And I saw intense, I mean, intense, black gnarly smoke in the garage.”
He says he consistently charged this lithium-ion battery for his hedge trimmer around the clock. According to fire investigators, it “shorted out and melted.”
“This is a real serious problem. People not only could get their homes burned down. They could die,” he said.
He says the device’s manual came with a warning about leaving the battery on the charger. But he’d like more prominent ones.
“There really, in my opinion, should be some sort of legislation through Raleigh or federal standards, saying, a big warning sign on these lithium batteries: ‘Do not charge overnight,’” he said. “If nothing else ... getting the message out, that people know when they get these chargers, they have to unplug them as soon as they’re charged. They can’t leave it in 24/7.”
Freeman says the business did replace his battery and charger and even gave him money to buy an air purifier for the smoke smell, all before Action 9 even got involved.
Charlotte Fire’s HAZMAT coordinator, Matthew Honaker, has this advice for you: charge the batteries until they’re fully charged, then take them off the charger, and only use the charger that came with that device and battery.
“Don’t switch chargers. Don’t use a different manufacturer charger,” Honaker said.
You may be thinking: don’t they have safety features so they stop charging on their own?
“Technology is as good as long as it works,” Honaker said. In other words, still play it safe.
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