A woman was left with painful burn scars on her hands when an EE Power Bar exploded while she left it in her bedroom to charge overnight.
There’s no shortage of horror stories when it comes to portable charging devices and battery technology. We’ve heard of Dell laptops exploding, e-cigarettes bursting into flames and now we can add power bars to the list.
Aberdeen Medical student Katy Emslie was recharging her EE Power Bar overnight when she was awakened to a loud noise and flames as the device erupted beside her bed. The portable charger shot across the room “like a firework” before settling underneath her bed, where it began to scorch the floor.
In a moment of panic, Katy made the drastic decision to douse the blaze with her own hands, causing significant burns to her fingers and palms. Luckily, her mother was at home and put out the blaze with a wet towel. She was later taken to hospital for treatment where they bandaged her hands in several dressings.
The power bars are given out free to EE, Orange and T Mobile customers, though the majority are perfectly safe. In order to minimise the risk of things like this occurring, it’s important to use the charger which shipped with the device. Voltage changes from incorrect charging peripherals or overcharging are both common causes of such cases. It’s unclear if these were the cause of this incident.
