A North Carolina dog chewed on a lithium-ion battery while alone at home. Things went downhill quickly, as the battery started to expel smoke and caught on fire, with video of the incident shared online by a local fire department.
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The video, shared by the Chapel Hill Fire Department (CHFD) on October 13, briefly showed the dog chewing on the battery. However, as it went up in smoke, the animal retreated in fear. Moments later, the battery burst into flames, catching the rug on fire.
“Colton is a good boy, but he counter-surfed while his humans (a CHFD family) were away and got hold of a device with a lithium-ion battery,” the CHFD detailed.
Turns out, the family dog had broken the battery’s protective features. The ensuing fire quickly caught the attention of his owner, who was immediately notified that something was going horribly wrong back at home, WRAL reported.
Owner Alerted
David Sasser, the dog’s owner and a CHFD firefighter, received an alert from his home security system.
“[My] heart sank,” Sasser told WRAL. “I had no idea what was going on. I had no clue what it could possibly be and came home to find that the rug had burned up.”
While no one was home, the family was relatively nearby, Sasser said. They managed to return home and extinguish the fire. Fortunately, the dog, Colton, was unharmed, and other than a wasted rug and some smoke damage, the house was fine.
“Thankfully, it pretty much fizzled out because of the rug and because we were home so quickly,” Sasser added. [The rug] was the only thing we lost.”
Durham Fire Chief Robert Zoldos told WRAL that lithium-ion batteries are becoming a more frequent fire hazard.
“What we are really concerned about as a fire department is how they are disposed of at the end of their life,” Zoldos said. “If not, it can lead to some very bad circumstances.”
Zoldos recommended unplugging the batteries once they are charged and storing them appropriately, out of harm’s way.
Additionally, the CHFD linked to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) website, warning about the danger of the batteries.
“While these batteries provide an effective and efficient source of power, the likelihood of them overheating, catching on fire, and even leading to explosions increases when they are damaged or improperly used, charged, or stored,” the NFPA said.