Hoverboard explosion at Texas mall causes evacuation; customer was trying to return faulty device when it burst into flames
BY Alfred Ng
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, December 28, 2015, 6:05 PM
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...osion-texas-mall-evacuation-article-1.2479069
NY Daily News
A dissatisfied hoverboard customer tried returning the device at a Texas mall on Monday, only to see it blow up in his face.
A hoverboard burst into flames inside a box as a customer tried returning the faulty self-balancing scooter at Deerbrook Mall on Monday afternoon, the Humble Fire Department told the Daily News.
The toy had all the signs pointing to a possible explosion: the device had a faulty battery and couldn’t hold a charge, the upset customer told the hoverboard merchant at the mall kiosk.
As the hoverboard salesman tried charging the device to prove the unhappy customer wrong, the self-balancing scooter exploded in a blaze, fire officials said.
PEOPLE EVERYWHERE ARE FALLING ON THEIR NEW HOVERBOARDS FROM CHRISTMAS

The hoverboard exploded when a customer tried to return it at the Deerbrook Mall in Humble, Texas. Sarah Elizabeth Hebert?/Facebook
Security evacuated the mall for about 45 minutes as staff put the flames out. There were no injuries reported.
“We thought it was a bomb going off at first,” Amanda Jones-Rucka wrote on her video capturing the heated accident.
The mall has re-opened since the evacuation.

Deerbrook Mall staff puts out the hoverboard's flames after it exploded in the box. Sarah Elizabeth Hebert?/Facebook
It is unclear where the potentially explosive hoverboards are now.
Hoverboards have come with a major red flag since the devices started exploding from some poorly-made batteries.
The national Fire Marshals organization issued an advisory in early December, warning about the popular toy's heated habit.
HOVERBOARDS ARE BLOWING UP: US AND UK OFFICIALS

Hoverboards like this one have been exploding all across the country since its spike in popularity. WGNO
Since Oct. 15, the UK’s National Trading Standards seized more than 15,000 hoverboards headed into the European Union, with an alarming 88% of all devices found to be dangerous due to its shoddy batteries.
The toys have also been blacklisted from Amazon’s market if they don’t meet safety standards.
The online shopping giant’s clean-up wiped out a whopping 97% of potentially dangerous hoverboards from its store.
The devices were also banned from several major American airlines in early December.
The self-balancing scooters have also been banned from New York City’s streets, as NYPD declared the devices as “unlawful motor vehicles” in public places.
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