Lithium battery fire in Dashwood [Video]

Fire Chief Jeremy Becker holds in his hand the melted remnants of a device power bank that spontaneously went up in flames Friday night in Dashwood.

“This could have been worse. The family was outside in their back porch eating supper around 6:00 p.m., and they probably would have left in the 20 minutes following for another event. But they heard the smoke detector go off. The father ran in the house, grabbed the fire extinguisher, and he was able to put the fire out,” said Becker.

The power bank wasn’t even plugged in at the time, but was sitting underneath an iPad plugged into the wall. Both devices were sitting on a bed, which is where the fire spread to, making it a potentially home destroying blaze.

“Charge these devices on hard surfaces. These things can catch fire, and this is exactly what happened. It got hot, and mattresses …