A tradie thought he was going to die after a battery pack exploded in his pocket – while issuing a desperate warning that ‘it could happen to anyone’.
Matthew, an air-conditioning installer from Melbourne, suffered horrific injuries after the explosion at work two weeks ago when he climbed a ladder while his phone was being charged by a power bank in his pocket.
“(I thought) my whole body is going to catch on fire and then I’m going to burn alive,” he told A Current Affair’s Sam Cucchiara.
“I thought I was definitely going to die.”
Matthew suffered life-changing injuries after the blast and requires another operation
Matthew, who is being treated at the Helen Macpherson Smith Burns Unit at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, described the excruciating pain he experienced.
“It was like someone holding a cast iron kettle right off the stove and putting it right on your knee for a long time,” he told the program.
“Suddenly all I hear is a hissing sound. I don’t know what’s going on, but I step off the ladder and I look down and see fire shooting in my face.’
“I’m not really afraid of death, but I just didn’t want to die at that moment — alone in a warehouse at night. Imagine if I died in that place – no one would find my body until the next day.’
He couldn’t call an ambulance, but somehow managed to drive himself to a restaurant where he called a taxi.
‘The first taxi has cancelled. I called an Uber and the driver refused to let me get in his car,” he said.
Fortunately, the third taxi took him to the hospital.
Tradie faces a long road to recovery after skin grafting of his right leg to cover his wounds on his left leg, as well as his left hand to heal his third degree burns.
“I just want people to know it could happen to them,” Matthew warned.
Tradie warned: ‘I just want people to know it could happen to them’
He bought the Office Works power bank, which is owned by Comsol.
The company’s website lists five power banks that have been recalled over safety concerns. It’s unclear if Matthew used one that has been recalled.
Daily Mail Australia approached Comsol for comment.
The company told A Current Affair that they recalled certain models in 2021 as soon as they became aware of a potential risk of injury.
Lithium-ion batteries, commonly used in phones, power banks, e-scooters and e-bikes, store a huge amount of energy in a very small space.
This means that they are much more powerful compared to other types of batteries.
A fire or explosion can also occur if a battery is damaged, overheated or overcharged.
Tony Carbon, a lawyer representing Matthew, told the program he has brought four cases to court where iPhones caught fire when customers carried them.
“We have several cases, including a woman whose house burned down because her phone caught fire,” he said.
Comsol, owner of Office Works where Matthew bought his battery pack, has five power banks listed on its website that have been recalled due to safety concerns. It’s unclear if Matthew used one that has been recalled
It comes because a fire chief has warned the public to be vigilant with lithium-ion batteries.
“They are quite reactive and explosive when those fires break out. This is an emerging trend – it’s not going away,” said Michelle Young, Deputy Commissioner of Fire Rescue Victoria.
Ms. Young encouraged people not to try not to damage them or put them under anything that could catch fire.
“It’s not that these products are unsafe — it’s just how we make them safer and how we live with this technology,” she said.
There has been a recent spate of fires in Sydney caused by e-bike batteries.
On Friday, firefighters were called to a property in the northern suburb of Balgowlah after a battery exploded, flinging debris three meters through the living room in which it had been charged.
Last month, a two-storey house in southern Sydney was razed to the ground after an e-bike battery was set on fire.
A woman was forced to flee the home by jumping from a second-story balcony as crews battled the blaze that spread from the garage to the ground floor.
Neighbors claim the property belongs to an electric scooter e-bike repairman who had several batteries stored in his garage that fueled the flames.
Last year, a young father-to-be was killed in an e-scooter battery fire.
Blake Whell, 22, and his partner Tomeka Willis, 20, were in a caravan on a property in Logan Central, Queensland, when a charging battery from an e-scooter caught fire in March 2022.
Willis, who was pregnant at the time, suffered burns to more than 80 percent of her body, while Whell died from his injuries.