Montreal mother demands answers after daughter’s hoverboard explodes

A Montreal mother is demanding answers after her daughter’s hoverboard exploded and burst into flames.

Cecilia Macedo’s 10-year-old daughter Sofia wasn’t hurt, but she and her family were shaken by the incident.

“She was really scared,” Macedo said.

Sofia had been riding around the intersection of St. Andre and Duluth in the Plateau-Mont-Royal. Macedo bought the hoverboard for her daughter in the spring.

“It started making some noise and she started carrying it. Then she got scared, put it on the floor and then it started exploding. Smoke was coming out of it,” she told Global News.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It started making some noise and she started carrying it. Then she got scared, put it on the floor and then it started exploding. Smoke was coming out of it," she told Global News.

Pieces of the hoverboard were strewn all over the street and sidewalk by the blast. Some were blown six feet away.

“The thing kind of exploded,” said witness Mike Jasmin. “Someone from the restaurant poured some water on it. Fire trucks came five minutes later. There were actual flames, an actual explosion.”

Macedo said her daughter was horrified. The 10-year-old could have been seriously injured if the hoverboard had exploded in her hands.

“The company needs to know that it’s dangerous for all families that have these in their houses. It can explode any time or be put on fire,” she said.

READ MORE: Hoverboard eyed in fire that killed toddler, critically hurt 2 other girls

Macedo says she bought the hoverboard on Kijiji from the people who run the website Wheelster.com. It’s a Montreal-based hoverboard re-seller. Global News reached out to Wheelster for comment but they did not want to say anything before seeing the destroyed item for themselves and until it is able to confirm that it sold the hoverboard to the family.

There have been safety concerns surrounding hoverboards since they hit the marketplace a few years ago. More than 500,o00 were recalled in the U.S. last year alone. When the recall was issued, safety authorities cited people suffering burns to their necks, legs and arms.

READ MORE: Over 500,000 hoverboards recalled after some battery packs explode, catch fire

There have even been lawsuits claiming hoverboards were responsible for burning houses down in California and Louisiana.

Macedo said her daughter’s hoverboard was manufactured by iBoard, a company based in Turkey. She would like to see them take action.

“They have to talk to their engineers and make sure. Make a recall or something because this is really dangerous,” she said.

She’ll be meeting the local distributor this week to try to get her money back.