Vape Battery Explodes Inside Woman's Handbag At Post Office

A vape battery exploded in a woman’s handbag inside a post office in the city of Salisbury in North Carolina on Thursday evening, causing concern. According to police, the woman had several batteries in her Michael Kors bag and one of them exploded while she was in 600 block of East Innes Street.

Police and firefighters arrived at the scene, but no injuries were reported. The bag was damaged due to the explosion. Authorities believe the batteries inside the bag either rubbed together or came into contact with something else metallic, causing the explosion.

The incident is under investigation, but there is no threat to public safety, police said.

There have been several incidents in the past where vape batteries have exploded and caused injuries. Late last month, a woman's hand burnt when she replaced the lithium batteries in her vape.

"It sounded like the combination of a bottle rocket and a pipe bomb," Kimberly Wright said. "The second battery blew up and it was even more violent than the first. I was scared to look down. I though it blew my two fingers off because it was so painful."

The Vape Escape in West Monroe, Louisiana, issued some recommendations for lithium battery safety, according to a local report.

1. Make sure to never leave your batteries in the car. 


2. Always make sure batteries are properly wrapped without any cuts. 


3. Double check to see you're putting them into the mod properly. 


4. And if the batteries appear to be overheating do not ignore the warning sign.

5. 
It's recommended to replace the lithium batteries every year.

In another incident, a 34-year-old Virginia woman was airlifted to a hospital after her vaping device blew up. Her boyfriend gave details of the incident to Fox News in September saying: “It shattered and fire everywhere."

“She’s screaming, ‘I’m burning, I’m burning,’ and I didn’t understand how bad it was until I saw her hands, but her entire index finger right here was cracked open and it was pretty bad,” he told the news outlet.

Fairfax Fire and Rescue responded to the scene, and said her injuries were not life-threatening.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Scott Gottlieb said early last month that youth vaping is an epidemic in the U.S. and that the agency may ban flavored electronic cigarettes if manufacturers don’t come up with plans to address it.