•March 2, 2016•

The Office of the State Fire Marshal would like to warn Illinois residents about fire hazards that have been posed by self-balancing motorized scooters known as “hoverboards.” Hoverboards were one of the most popular gifts of the holiday season but have come under recent scrutiny due to a number of incidents in which they have caught fire while charging or while in use.

Hoverboards are powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Historically, lithium-ion batteries have had fire-related problems in laptops, cell phones and electrical systems in airplanes. They have been known to burst into flames when recharging and sometimes while in use.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.