A Texas family is blaming a pair of children’s light-up shoes for igniting a fire inside their vehicle.
Atilla and Jovan Piraj said their two-and-a-half-year-old son kicked off his Jake and the Neverland Pirates light-up shoes while the family was driving Friday night.
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The couple left the shoes in the vehicle overnight, only to wake to a smoky SUV Saturday morning.
“There was nothing in the car, as far as we knew, that could start a fire,” Jovan Piraj told KPRC. “I saw the shoe laying on the ground with the wires sticking up, and it was just a lightbulb. I knew immediately that’s what it was.”
The Katy Fire Department has yet to determine what caused the fire, but the Piraj’s believe it was due to the battery inside the shoe.
“I was rather surprised there was a little lithium ion battery in there just to get some LED lights blinking,” said Attila Viraj. “It seems rather unnecessary.”
The couple said they purchased the blinking shoes at a Payless Shoe Source store.
In a statement, Payless wrote, “We have contacted the family, and we will work with them and local authorities to better understand the circumstances of the fire and what may have caused it.”
The parents meanwhile said they would think twice about buying another pair of the shoes.
“You don’t really think about it, right, because it’s a blinky shoe, it’s cool,” said Attila. “You don’t think about the risks.”
The parents are just happy their son was not injured in the alleged malfunction.
“If this had happened while my son was wearing them or in the house, you know, who knows.”
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