15-05-2025
Erie fire marshal warning against new online challenge with Chromebooks
A new viral social media challenge where students tamper with school laptops is threatening the safety of people in schools around the country.
Students are said to be tampering with the charging ports of their devices in hopes of starting a fire.
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Beyond the extreme danger of playing with fire, lithium-ion batteries found in laptops bring a slew of additional dangers.
'A lithium ion battery burning is going to produce toxic smoke so if you breathe that smoke in, it could harm you, it could harm other people. If there's a thermal runaway in that battery, people have seen those videos online, the fire happens very quickly, and it's very powerful. It's something you just really don't want to mess with,' said Donald Sauer, chief fire marshal of the Erie Fire Department.
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Just a few months ago, two Erie teens were severely injured from another fire-related social media challenge. One of the victims spent months in the burn unit in Pittsburgh because of their injuries.
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