An Atlanta woman claims her home was nearly destroyed after her electronic cigarette exploded, lighting her couch and rug on fire.
Elizabeth Wilkowski said she was charging her E-hit brand e-cigarette in her computer when it exploded, according to various local media reports.
“It sounded like a bomb, okay, my walls rattled, okay, it shook the house up, I screamed, you know?,” Wilkowski told a local ABC affiliate. “It was a real freak out moment.”
Like most e-cigarettes, the device Wilkowski used was produced in China. A representative from Seego, which makes E-hit, told the Huffington Post on Wednesday that the company stopped producing the E-Hit model three months ago “for market reasons,” but the product is still listed on its website.
Seego has yet to respond to a complaint from Wilkowski, she told ABC. The company told HuffPost that based on the photos and videos appearing in news reports, Wilkowski wasn't using a charger made by the company.
Wilkowski’s experience illustrates the dangers of the rapidly growing industry that has remained largely immune from regulation in the U.S.
E-cigarette sales are poised to reach $1.7 billion, according to the New York Times, as Americans smoke fewer cigarettes. And while U.K. officials said earlier this year that e-cigarettes should be regulated like medicines, the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t imposed rules on e-cigarettes yet.
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