A man in California suffered serious burns to his leg after an e-cigarette exploded in his pocket while he was at a store in Anaheim last Saturday.
Mohamad Zayid Abdihdy can be seen in security video at an HDTV Outlet store taking measurements of a TV when he says he felt a shock in his pocket and the device began to burn him, NBC 4 reports.
The video shows an eruption of sparks coming from his right side, with him then shouting multiple expletives before running off screen clutching his leg.
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“Basically, it blew up in my pocket,” he said.
He then ran to the washroom to attend to his burns.
Antelmolare Guzman, a manager at the store, said he had assisted Abdihdy and was at the front of the store to draw up paperwork for the TV the 24-year-old planned to purchase when he heard an explosion.
“We turn around and all we see is smoke and something caught on fire,” Guzman said. “The gentleman, he is running out to the front of the office, and he is screaming and yelling. Apparently, all of his right leg was completely burnt all the way down.”
One voice can be heard on video asking, “What just happened?” with another person saying, “I don’t know.”
Guzman rushed to where the customer had been standing to put out the e-cigarette which was still sparking on the floor.
He said it was “really scary” because the explosion was around several boxes and the business is in an industrial area, “so it could have easily caught fire.”
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Despite having received the burns, Abdihdy said he drove himself home and did not go to a hospital. Instead, his cousin went to a pharmacy and bought medicine for his scorched skin.
“I can’t walk on my leg, honestly,” he told NBC. “That’s how much I’m in pain.”
He said he doesn’t plan to continue smoking e-cigarettes.
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