A warning from a Woodland Hills woman injured when her [clears throat] portable phone charger exploded, setting her bed on fire. Only on CBS LA, she tells our Joy Benedict about the gift from her dad that may have saved her life. It just goes like an explosion.
Ashley Neville is still in shock looking at what's left of her bed after her portable charger exploded. Put my phone down for just literally 5 seconds and my portable charger that was plugged into just exploded. This side of the bed caught fire.
So, there's a huge flame. It happened on Saturday morning inside her apartment in Woodland Hills. I could have, you know, died.
I could, my hand could have exploded off. With her bed on fire and her arm burning from chemicals, she had a second to make a decision. I'm like, "Oh my god, my room is about to catch on fire.
" I start to try to take the blanket to stop it. The fire is not going out. Ran in my kitchen, grabbed the fire blanket, put it over it, and it stopped the flames immediately.
But she needed help. With her phone overheated, she just ran to her balcony. Waking everyone up.
I'm screaming, "Somebody help me. Call 911. Call 911.
I'm burned. Somebody help me. " It was the scariest experience I've ever had in my life.
Neville went to the hospital and 4 days later is still suffering from chemical burns up and down her arm. I still have limited mobility in my thumb. I can like, you know, move it a little bit um to like hold on to things, but I don't have a full grip.
But she's speaking out because she wants others to know of the dangers of portable chargers that are usually made from lithium ion batteries. And we all use portable chargers all the time. We never think, "Oh, this might explode.
" Neville purchased hers on Amazon this summer. Marketed as a Hyara for Mags Safe battery pack. It's no longer for sale on the website and Amazon says it's looking into the incident.
We couldn't find any recalls under this brand name, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission warns consumers to only use chargers approved for your device and to never leave portable chargers unattended or sleep with them. Thankfully, Neville didn't do either of those things. I could have died.
I could have killed other people. And today she is thankful she survived the explosion and for hering a simple fire blanket that likely prevented her apartment and her building from burning. I just pray this doesn't happen to anyone else.
Joy Benedict, CBSLA.
