A home security camera captured the terrifying moment an Elf Bar exploded just feet from a baby sitting in a high chair.
The clip, posted to TikTok this week, was filmed with a Ring camera inside a living room and shows the boy in front of a counter where the e-cigarette was located.
The mother said she went to the pantry to give her baby a snack when she heard a loud sound and saw fire coming out of the steamer about two feet from her son, who did not appear injured but was visibly terrified by the incident.
An Elf Bar, like most e-cigarettes, contains a lithium battery that can explode when it becomes too hot as a result of overcharging or exposure to direct sunlight.
The mother said she went to the pantry to give her baby a snack when she heard a loud sound and saw fire coming out of the steamer about two feet from her son, who did not appear injured but was visibly terrified by the incident.
It is unclear if the vaporizer seen in the video was being charged when it caught fire.
The video was recorded inside an Oregon home in July 2023, but has just been posted online.
The footage begins with a boy walking through the living room while his little sister sits calmly in her high chair located in the kitchen.
Then a loud bang was heard, startling the little boy and sparks started flying from the counter towards the baby’s legs.
The sparks quickly turned into flames that engulfed a small area of the table.
“What’s going on?” Samantha Humphrey, the children’s mother, can be heard shouting from outside the camera frame.
Elf Bar is the most popular e-cigarette worldwide, generating more than $271 million last year, according to retail data tracker Neilsen.
The clip, posted to TikTok this week, was taken from a living room and shows the boy in front of a counter where the e-cigarette was located.
Humphrey quickly ran to his baby and pulled her away from the flames coming out of the Elf Bar.
“Oh my God,” the mother continued shouting with the child in her arms.
Humphrey then appeared to grab a spray bottle to put out the flames.
While the incident lasted only a few seconds, it is a stark reminder that although vaporizers are small, they can have a deadly effect if problems arise with the lithium battery.
E-cigarettes rely on a battery to power the heating coil, which in turn heats the e-liquid inside the device to turn it into the vapor that users inhale.
Manufacturers turn to lithium batteries to make thin, light products that maintain power between charges.
The mother quickly ran to her baby and away from the flames coming out of the Elf Bar. ‘My God,’ the mother continued to scream with the toddler in her arms.
A woman named Marine was also a victim of the Elf Bar explosion last year. She posted on a forum that she had bought a new Crystal Elf Bar and plugged it in while she kept it on her bed, which also exploded.
In most electronic products, such as mobile phones and laptops, strict regulations make lithium-ion batteries relatively safe.
However, they pose a health risk in the unregulated vaping device industry.
The first device of the recent innovation in electronic cigarettes was developed in 2003 by Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik, former deputy director of the Institute of Chinese Medicine in Liaoning province.
E-cigarettes entered the U.S. market around 2007, but it took another seven years for the devices to take off, and that’s when reports of explosions began to emerge.
A 2023 study by Hannover Medical School in Germany showed that there were 2,035 cases of e-cigarette explosions admitted to US emergency departments between 2015 and 2017.
A woman named Marine was also a victim of the Elf Bar explosion last year.
He posted on a forum that he had bought a new Crystal Elf Bar and plugged it in while storing it in his bed.
‘I went to bed about half an hour later and tuned out to taste. It tasted like vomit,” Marine wrote.
‘For some stupid reason I plugged it back in and 5 minutes later it exploded and started smoking really hard.
‘A six-inch-deep hole was burned into our new mattress. That was on fire.’
Elf Bar is the most popular e-cigarette worldwide, generating more than $271 million last year, according to retail data tracker Nielsen.
In June 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked 180 stores across the United States to stop selling Elf Bars.
Vaporizers are not approved for use by the FDA and have previously been linked to health problems, including lung and heart damage, and may lead young people to try other drugs.