Hoverboard explodes and sets house on fire, nearly killing 3 children

The living room where the hoverboard exploded

Three children were nearly killed after a hoverboard exploded and set fire to a house in Bradford, West Yorkshire. It was only thanks to the quick thinking of one of them, 13-year-old Jibril Muhammed Faris, that they were saved.
Jibril was playing at his nine-year-old friend Tony Chiem's house in St Mary's Drive, Wyke, when the hoverboard began to smoke before exploding in the living room. The hoverboard had been recently plugged into the socket to charge but once remove it began to smoke and eventually caught fire just before 9pm on January 16. As smoke filled the room and the flames grew bigger, Jibril managed to first rescue his friend's eight-year-old sister Karen Chiem, who suffered an injury to her foot, from the blaze to the safety of the upstairs bedroom. Jibril attempted to get out of the front door but the smoke prevented him from being able to find the key to open the door, forcing him to go upstairs.

He then went back into the blaze-hit room to find his friend Tony and take him to the bedroom where his sister was. Jibril then dialled 999 and operators advised him to cover the bottom of the bedroom door so the smoke would not come through.
Meanwhile, the Chiem children's mother, Thu suffered burns to her ear after entering the house before everyone managed to escape through the front door. Jibril's father Tariq Majid has hailed his teenage son a hero after he helped rescue the other children.
Following the fire, Mr Majid has called the Costco branch in Leeds, where the Chiam family bought the hoverboard back in November. He says the manager told him that the particular hoverboard had been recalled and letters had been sent out.