Children’s Book Ignites Car Seat in North Carolina Family’s Minivan Minutes After Parking
Police in North Carolina are telling parents after a minivan fire in the state was caused by a children’s book with a battery.
The Burke County, North Carolina, fire department said on Sunday that a child’s car seat caught fire soon after the child got out of the car. Burke County is about 70 miles northwest of Charlotte.
A Facebook post from the fire department says that after the firemen put out the fire, the Fire Marshal’s Office found that it was started by a “button battery” in a children’s book that was left under the seat.
Pictures of the fire damage showed that most of the seat’s bottom had been burned. The padding had also been burned, and some of the plastic had melted. It’s not clear which Cocomelon book started the fire, even though the fire department shared a picture of the cover of a book called “JJ’s Potty Time” that makes noise.
Destiny Williams told WSOC-TV that the fire started after she and her family got home from church on Sunday and had been inside for about 20 minutes. Misty, her daughter, had been in the car seat the whole time.
Williams said, “This is crazy, but thank God she’s safe.”
Pressley Williams, Misty’s father, agreed with her.
Pressley Williams said, “I was shocked and shocked when the fire marshal came and confirmed it was from a lithium battery from a child’s book.”
They tried to get the company to pay for the damage but were turned down. He said the book that started the fire didn’t have a warning sign. They did say that they hoped other families could learn from what happened.
How do I keep battery fires from happening?
The U.S. Fire Administration says that leaving lithium-ion batteries in hot cars or direct sunlight can be dangerous. Instead, they should be kept at room temperature.