Hoverboards are responsible for two fires Thursday on the Jersey Shore including one that displaced a family from their new home.

A hoverboard that was plugged in for less than 10 minutes to recharge caught fire, forcing members of the Lyles family out of their Asbury Park home, according to News 12 New Jersey.

Sherrice Lyles wrote on a GoFundMe page the family had moved into the two-level home on Prospect Avenue a week ago. The New Jersey chapter of the Red Cross assisted the family with temporary housing, but Lyles said she needs to replace the family's smoke-damaged clothes and furniture.

Photos on the GoFundMe page show the ceiling paint bubbled from the heat of the fire and the burned-out hoverboard. The family used a fire extinguisher to try and extinguish the fire in a bedroom but the flames got out of control, according to News 12.

Long Branch Professional Firefighters Association-FMBA Local 68 on its Facebook page wrote that a hoverboard also caught fire in a garbage truck in the Elberon section of the city on Thursday.

Nearly 100 reported incidents of the battery packs of hoverboards overheating, sparking, smoking, catching fire or exploding, including two in New Jersey, were reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2015 and 2016. Ten companies recalled their hoverboards in July, 2016.

Many New Jersey colleges banning them from campus including Rutgers, Seton Hall, Rider and Stockton.

In April a hoverboard caught fire in a child's bedroom in Paterson in April.

FMBA Local 68 offered tips on safely using a hoverboard including:

  • Only use the original battery charger.
  • If at all possible recharge your hoverboard outdoors.
  • Don't charge it while you're sleeping.
  • Don't use a damaged hoverboard as damaged lithium-polymer batteries are particularly prone to fires.
  • Try not to leave a charging hoverboard unattended

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

 

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