SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20240913-E5137-2147336555. Severity: No Incident, No Injury. Product: EGO BA2800T (56v Leaf Blower (MAX) 280 Wh). Incident: 3 weeks ago tomorrow, August 24th, at about 7:20 am EDT there was a strong smell of "burning electrical wires" in my house. I quickly walked around the house and then realizes outside the door from my Florida room to my pool I could see dark smoke. I ran to that door and as I was going out, there was a loud explosion to my right where the covered screen porch is. M17 month old EGO blower was on the wood floor in the middle there, next to my spin bike and stack of new patio chair cushions, with flames were shooting from the top of it. The fire was already spreading to cushions. I pushed the blower away from the cushions with a tall pool filter that was nearby. Then I grabbed the blower by the long end and threw it in the pool. All this happened in less than 1/2 of a terrifying minute. After about 1/2 an hour I fished the blower out of the pool with a 2x4 and set it on the concrete poolside. The battery started to blink red !! So using the 2x4, I got the blower out to the middle of my crushed stone parking area, afraid the battery might explode again. 2 days later I wrapped the blower in a silver tarp and took it back to Lowes. they were sorry for my experience, and gave me a gift card fur the full amount of the blower. I walk on the beach every other morning at 7 am, and think it's very lucky that I was home when this happened. I live alone since losing my husband. and because of this EGO battery, I could have lost my home and my 3 beloved cats. I have told all my family members to be a lot more cautious where and how their lithium tool batteries are stored. I have always be