Louisiana family says Hoverboard started house fire

Hayden had the hoverboard for just one day before the fire.

Topping many lists of the hottest holiday toys of 2015 is a hoverboard, but after a handful of accidents – including one in which the brand-new gadget caught fire, exploded, and burned down a house in Louisiana – it’s now one of the season’s most risky.

Jessica Horne, the mother of a 12-year-old boy in Lafitte, Louisiana, said she saw flames shoot out of both ends of her son’s hoverboard when charging its lithium battery with the charger that she said came with the hoverboard.

She said the hoverboard was ordered on Amazon.com from a company called Fit Turbo.

“It was like fireworks”, she says, “the middle part of the board – just ‘poof.'” Jessica says the fire was so intense that her house was in flames within minutes.

“When it happened, I couldn’t believe”, said Hayden, Jessica’s son.

Hayden said he just plugged his in to be recharged shortly before the fire. The family is now planning to sue the hoverboard company.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission told WGNO there have been eight reported injuries in the last three months involving hoverboards that required a trip to the emergency room. Luckily, no one was seriously injured, she said, adding that fearless firefighters rescued the family dog.

The local authorities are now investigating the cause of the fire, but this is not the first allegation of smoking hover boards.