Vaping comes with many new risks that good old regular smoking never had. People often buy their liquids and vapes from shady places online, resulting in dodgy electronics, unsafe juice, and scary inhaled chemicals. One woman found out the hard way that traditional tobacco is king after her vape caught fire in her pocket.
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35-year-old Keri Absolom was a huge fan of her vape pen. She kept it with her everywhere to feed her nicotine needs. So, it was always on her body somewhere, be it her hand or her pocket. But, due to some dodgy wiring and possible overuse, the vape caught fire.
As she sat, Absolom noticed that her pocket was smoking. Looking down, she saw fire coming from the pocket containing her vape. "As I saw a small flame begin to flicker in my pocket, I tried to furiously pat it out with my hands," she recalled.
But the fire had already started, and it wasn't going out without a fight. Battery fires are chemical-fed and hard to extinguish. "I tried, along with my husband, Christopher, to yank my trousers off as it got worse." In the process, she burnt her fingers. She recalled that, "My hand was in such throbbing pain that I hadn't even registered what it had done to the rest of my body."
As she pulled off her trousers, the true extent of the damage from the vape fire became clear. "The smell of burnt flesh made me feel sick," she said. "I'm not squeamish, so I looked and was shocked to see my leg had been burnt to a crisp." She saw her flesh "rolling into one oozing mass."
Months Of Recovery After Vape Fire
Her boyfriend called the fire services, who took her to the garden and doused her leg in water until the ambulance arrived. They confirmed that, due to faulty wiring, the vape had caught fire after the battery came in contact with her keys.
The recovery for Absolom was a long and arduous one. Consequently, the damage to her leg was vast, with skin from her upper thigh down to mid shin destroyed. As a result, she required extensive skin grafts.
Absolom was given pain medication and had to return to the hospital over the coming months. "The agony was unbearable," she recalled. "Even getting in the shower was painful. I kept getting allergic reactions and rashes from the pain medication."
Now, she still has a fear of electronic items, understandably. Often, people forget that vape pens are often untested and dangerous pieces of equipment with powerful heating elements that can catch fire. Instead, stick to regular cigarettes; they're way cooler.
