Firefighters said quick thinking saved a Boynton Beach home from catching fire after a hoverboard suddenly exploded.
At first Zackery Thompson thought he heard gunshots. But his eyes changed his mind.
“The flames were huge,” he said.
As he walked through his Boynton Beach house Friday afternoon, he saw his roommates hoverboard on fire.
“It was like some Roman candle fireworks,” he described.
Thompson said the flames ripped through his roommate's mattress. The roommate picked up the mattress and threw it in the pool behind the house. You can still see where the mattress burned the pool liner.
“If we weren't there the whole house would have burned down,” Thompson said. “Especially if Marshall hadn't picked up that mattress, it would have ended badly.”
The Boynton Beach fire department said it's investigated at least one other case of a hoverboard catching fire.
Firefighters found no reason to rule this fire suspicious.
This summer, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled more than 500,000 hoverboards because of faulty batteries. The government warns no one should only buy a hoverboard without a “UL" label.
“It was pretty scary, it looks like a bomb waiting to happen,” roommate Josh said holding the burned hoverboard. The roommates don’t plan on bringing another one into the house.
