Jupiter family loses everything: E-bike battery explosion sparks catastrophic fire

Описание: A silent threat lurks in homes across the country: lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from e-bikes to iPhones, can quickly become dangerous—or even deadly.

What began as a normal evening turned into a living nightmare for one Jupiter family.

While their e-bike battery was charging, it suddenly exploded just feet away from where they were sleeping. Within moments, their home—once filled with cherished memories—was engulfed in flames.

“It took five minutes. Yeah, it was probably a total of five minutes,” Shawna Clark said. That’s all it took for Clark’s home and everything in it to be turned to ashes.

A few months ago, Shawna was downstairs asleep with her 6-year-old son, Nash, and her 13-year-old daughter, Emma, when the unthinkable happened.

“Around I'd say, midnight, I heard a weird noise. It woke me up. Startled me,” she said. “I noticed, like a flash of light. I grabbed both of my children and as I did, there was a huge flash.”

That flash was the e-bike’s lithium-ion battery exploding just behind their couch.

“It completely exploded. It was shooting flames and setting things on fire like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” she said. “It did burn my daughter's eyelashes and her hair a little bit.”

Her fiancé, Charles McClelland, was upstairs. He woke to find the house on fire and barely managed to escape.

“He ended up jumping through the flames and out the front door to alert the neighbors so we could call 911, because none of us had our phones,” Shawna said.

In a matter of minutes, furniture, baby pictures, and family heirlooms were destroyed.

“Not even with rental insurance, would it have covered even a quarter of what we had in there, especially irreplaceable things, you know, memories,” she said.

Experts warn that this is a risk more families are facing. While lithium-ion batteries are incredibly useful, they can be deadly if not handled properly.

“Keep it in a stable environment. You aren’t rough with it, you don't want to be dropping it and burring it all over the place,” Victoria Hutchison, Senior Research Project Manager at the Fire Protection Research Foundation, said. “Making sure that you have a way out If something does happen. It’s critical, you know, that the fire service can come and handle that if you have a sprinkler system even, even better.”

Hutchison says it's important to always buy batteries from a nationally recognized testing lab. It's also important to stop charging once they're full, use only the charger that came with your device, and stop using the device if the battery shows signs of damage like unusual smells or swelling.

In the meantime, Shawna, her fiancé, their two children, and their two dogs are living in a small camper, trying to piece their lives back together.

“You never think it’s going to happen to you. We didn’t either,” Shawna said.

It’s a frightening reality that could happen to anyone.

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