Hoverboards may be seized or recalled due to fire risk

SAN FRANCISCO – The federal government is laying down the law on hoverboards, which have a disconcerting tendency to burst into flames.

Self-balancing scooters that don’t meet newly-released safety standards face detention, seizure or recall, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Friday.

UL, previously known as Underwriters Laboratories, released the first safety standards for the increasingly popular self-balancing scooters, often called hoverboards, on Feb. 2.

In a letter send to manufacturers, importers and retailers on Thursday but first made public Friday, Robert Howell, director of CPSC’s office of compliance and field operations, said that any hoverboards that didn’t meet the safety standards would be subject to “detention and/or seizure,” by CPSC staff.

“In addition, if we encounter such products domestically, we may seek a recall of these products,” he said.

Hoverboards were a popular item over the Christmas season. However, as more have been sold, safety concerns have come to the fore.

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Reports that they sometimes burst into flames began to surface. The devices have been implicated in as many as 52 fires resulting in over $2 million dollars in property damage, including the destruction of two homes, CPSC said.

The danger comes from the lithium-ion batteries used to power the popular devices, which “pose an unreasonable risk of fire to consumers,” Howell said in his letter.

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