A Los Angeles-based freelance reporter had a scary morning earlier this month, when her portable charger suddenly exploded, leaving her with chemical burns on her arm, her hair and a hole in her bed.
“PSA to anybody that uses a portable charger: don’t,” Ashley Nevel said in a video she posted to her social media on Feb. 15. “Mine literally just exploded in my bed. Everything caught on fire. My mattress — burned a hole through it. I literally have nowhere to sleep.”
She explained that she has an emergency fire blanket that was a housewarming gift from her dad, according to KCAL-TV, that she believes saved her life.
“Stop using portable chargers,” she reiterated. “I smell like smoke. My entire apartment needs to be cleaned to get the toxicity out. I can’t even stay there. It’s really bad. So, don’t use a portable charger. Make sure you have a fire blanket handy because it honestly saved my life, and I’m just grateful to be alive.”
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After she got back from the hospital, Nevel added, “Another terrifying part of all of this is my phone was charged. It was charging in the charger, and it overheated when the charger exploded, so I couldn’t call 911. I couldn’t make any phone calls.”
She said she was forced to run out on her balcony and scream for others to call 911 — all after waking up to the explosion at 5 a.m.
“Thankfully my neighbors were like, amazing,” she said, adding that emergency responders arrived within three minutes.
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“When you’re dealing with something like that, fight or flight kicks in,” she said. “You have no f—ing idea what to do.”
Later, she also suggested that banning portable chargers on airplanes altogether might be a good idea.
“What if I was on an airplane and that happened?” she questioned. “What do you do in that situation? Like, everyone is in danger with a small little charger and I never thought that was going to happen to me.”
She added that she’s been walking around with portable chargers for years.
“You never think something is going to happen to you, and I’m just more thankful it isn’t more serious than it could have been,” she continued. “Yeah, throw away your portable chargers.”
