A rechargeable battery caught fire in my kitchen. Here’s what I learned.

We learned a very important lesson late last night.

Never go to sleep with any rechargeable devices plugged in and charging — especially devices with lithium-ion batteries.

I was awakened by the smell of something burning at about 10:30 last night. But it wasn’t the familiar smell of the fire in our wood-burning stove burning itself out on a windy night.

When I left the bedroom and turned on the hall light, there was a visible smoky haze and a very obnoxious smell throughout the first floor. I yelled for  my husband to wake up. “Something’s burning!” 

We spent several minutes running through the house trying to figure out what was burning — or at least where the smoke was coming from. We ran into the basement and upstairs. Nothing. The smoke seemed to be concentrated in the dining room.

“Call the fire department,” he ordered as he ran back to the bedroom to get dressed.

I called 911 and right after I gave our address and the nature of the emergency, I heard him shout, “I found it!”

An electronic hand-warmer — one of a pair he’d received for Christmas 2023 — had quite literally melted. Peter immediately unplugged it. We saw no flames, but from the looks of it, the thing had obviously been on fire, not just overheated. The thing that saved us from a catastrophe was that the devices were charging on a tile countertop without anything flammable nearby.

I told the dispatcher what we’d found and said everything was OK, but she said the fire department would still want to come check it out. I was — and remain — grateful for that. Hey, you never know.

We ran around the house again, this time opening all the windows. The stench was awful. Peter hustled the dog out of the house and into his pickup.

A couple of minutes later, a Riverhead Police Department patrol officer was at our door. Riverhead Fire Department Chief Pete Kurzyna came in right behind him. 

Chief Kurzyna gave the all-clear, letting dispatch and firefighters know there was no working structure fire.

The lesson here is simple. Never go to sleep or leave home while electronic devices are plugged in and their lithium-ion batteries are charging. 

Wherever possible, choose products that have been independently tested for safety by Underwriters Laboratory (UL) or an equivalent entity abroad (symbols to look for are ETL, CSA, PSE, KC).

Manufacturers are allowed to “self-certify” but if it’s not a company you know and trust, make no assumptions that it’s sufficient or correct. Note that the symbols CE, UKCA and RoHS do not indicate independent safety testing. And if you see FCC — that is a U.S. government entity—it has nothing to do with safety certification. 

It may be increasingly difficult to buy everyday electronic products that have been independently tested for safety. But as the saying goes, buyer beware. And whatever you do, don’t leave rechargeable devices plugged in and charging unless you’re home, awake, and nearby.