North End Hoverboard Fire Displaces Eight People
Photo via iStock/Nippel
A fire started by an electronic hoverboard caused an estimated $100,000 in damage to an apartment building on Hanover Street in the North End, displacing eight people, a fire official says.
“A person was in the apartment, he came in and the hoverboard was on fire and it had extended to the walls,” Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald told the Herald. The device was not in use.
No one was injured in the one-alarm blaze, which MacDonald said was the first such hoverboard fire he can recall in Boston. Those displaced by the fire will be able to return to their homes as early as Monday.
An ordinance passed by the Boston City Council in 2011 made use of “electrical personal assistive mobility devices” illegal on public property, while the MBTA has outright banned hoverboards from its trains, buses, and stations. A number of Boston colleges and universities have banned hoverboards as well, including MIT, Emerson College, Boston University, and Boston College.
