A US teen was thrown from his bed in the middle of the night after a portable charger plugged in next to him exploded.
Fifteen-year-old Colton Pingree, from Tuolumne, California, suffered second degree burns as a result of the explosion, which also caused a fire in his room - burning a pillow and two comforter blankets.
The charging pack was second hand, bought online. Colton placed it the pillow next to him before going to sleep, charging it ahead of going to school the following the day.
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At around 2.30am in the morning he awoke, only to discover he was lying on his bedroom floor with a severely sore back and a strange smell surrounding him.
"I looked up and both of my comforters and one of my pillows was on fire," Colton explained.
"The fire was probably about 4 inches long and 5 inches wide and [the explosion] literally pushed me off the bed.
"I woke up in a panic - I stood up and started grabbing the fire with my bare hands and rolling it out.
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"After I got the flames out I grabbed a water bottle I had by my bed and I had a small pocket knife besides me, so I poked a hole at the top of the cap and started spraying the spots that were still smouldering and red."
The charging pack itself was still on fire and so Colton hastily threw it into the toilet, before going to alert his father, Andrew Pringee.
"His back and arm was really badly burnt and it looked like a really bad sunburn so we didn't go to the hospital at that point in time - I waited until the following morning and then we took him," said 49 year-old Andrew.
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"I was pretty scared and confused at first and then I figured out what was going on and it was under control by then, but then I was more concerned about his back and he was in a lot of pain.
"It was a pretty good explosion - little hot sharp metal pieces basically burnt the lower end of his buttocks and back, and scattered out all the way to the wall across his bed."
As the pain in Colton's injuries became worse, his dad took him to hospital where - after initially diagnosing him with bruises - it eventually became clear he was suffering from bad burns, after he took off a protective strip that pulled off a layer of skin with it.
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Thankfully the injuries are now healing, but the family are keen to make sure other people are careful when it comes to charging electrical appliances by their bed sides.
"Don't keep charging packs with you when you're sleeping - just have them away from you and somewhere that's not easy to catch on fire," warned Colton.
"I'll also put my phone off the side of my bed - it could cause another thing like that to happen again.
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"I suggest that others don't sleep with them either as it could happen to anyone - I never expected that."
Useful advice for us all.
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy NewsTopics: Phones and Gadgets, US News, Health