Hoverboard starts house fire at Strathmore home

A hoverboard given as a Christmas gift has been blamed for starting a house fire in Strathmore last night.

A family of five were evacuated safely after one of the children noticed that the hoverboard, which was plugged into its charger, had sparked and ignited into flames.  

Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which started at around 6.30pm last night, however said that the interior of the home suffered a lot of damage.

Acting Commander Phil Smith from the Melbourne Fire Brigade told Justin and Kate the incident served as a warning about the dangers of leaving charging items unattended.

‘This is the first hoverboard that I know of that’s caused such an extensive fire,’ Acting Commander Smith said, ‘it should make everybody aware that if they’ve got something they plug in and charge, particularly a hoverboard, that they do it in an area that they can monitor it.’

‘Anything that has batteries in it has the potential to cause a fire.’

Listen in full to the full interview with Acting Commander Phil Smith