There's a strange news website that I go to called UPI and the reason that I go there is because I enjoy looking at the lottery advertisements that are disguised as news stories and also because they have some news there that hasn't been corrupted by horrible MSM bias. Very little of what they publish is at all political as well.
They do have some human interest stories though that I think are kind of important and for me an a close friend of mine, hits kind of close to home.
These phone chargers or powerbanks don't often catch fire and explode, but the fact that they do it more often than never is kind of alarming. I was recently flying and there was a big hullabaloo about people not being allowed to charge their powerbanks on the planes and how they have to be stored at your seat and what not. Apparently a few of these have started fires on planes and in such a contained and O2 rich environment, I can kind of understand why this would be a problem.
You can look at the video this family captured of the powerbank exploding and starting a fire in their living room.
The reason why I say this hits close to home for me is because a friend of mine has what is probably permanent scarring on her leg because of a powerbank that exploded next to her leg while she was sleeping in her bed. Talk about a rude awakening.
I was kind of curious about legal options that she could pursue for compensation at least, at the minimum, to cover her medical expenses. She had 3 really deep burns on her leg and even though they have healed sort of, she now has these ugly marks on her leg that are honestly, really gross looking. She is likely going to have those for the rest of her life because the injury was 6 months ago and the scars are not going away.
I'm not trying to get into some anti-lithium discussion here though. I like EV's and sorry if you do not.
But what is the deal with these things appearing to explode with greater frequency nowadays? Is it just because we have so much more lithium batteries in our lives now? I am kind of in awe that this can be happening so frequently and yet people still buy these things and the companies that make them seem to get away without ever needing to be held responsible for selling a dangerous product.
It's been a while since I actually bought a powerbank. I think I have one in the other room but they aren't really necessary for me seeing as how USD charging points are just about everywhere these days. Maybe I just don't use my phone like a lunatic and therefore don't need it.
In the case of my friend she I guess could have been a lot worse off than she was but I don't really buy into her sympathy-gathering cries of "I could have died!" eerrrr. Not really though, are you just going to keep lying there when you are engulfed in flames?
Personally the only experience I have had with a battery malfunctioning was when my Samsung phone from several years ago made a popping sound and the case flew off as the battery rapidly expanded and turned into this sort of jelly-like substance rather than a solid battery.
I'm just kind of wondering how the companies manage to avoid any sort of liability when these things do seem to end up in the news a lot more frequently than they used to. How is it that my friend can be horribly burned by a malfunctioning charger and get nothing but that lady at McDonalds burns herself on some coffee and wins millions of dollars? (and yes, I know there is more to that story than meets the eye.)
Have you had an explosion of a lithium variety? Let's talk about it in the comments if you have.