Ohio Tops List of States with Most Hoverboard Fires

Now that the weather is finally warming up (for now) you’ll likely see more people out and about — folks walking dogs, jogging, strolling hand-in-hand, and, no doubt, some doofus on a hoverboard.

Hoverboards — technically called self-balancing scooters — are basically rolling incendiary bombs, thanks to their habit of sparking and catching fire. We saw this locally just last month, when an hoverboard caught fire while charging in a basement in Orange Village. This is beginning to be a problem, however.

Currently, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating 57 fires related to the product. All told, that’s around $2 million in damage. The good folks at the Boston Globe created a data map of where those cases are located — and big surprise here maybe for you, but Ohioans are right at the top.

Ohio has racked up five hoverboard fires. That’s just as many as Texas. Only New York (8) and California (11) have had more incidents.