24-year-old electrician dies after vape pen explodes in his face

When William Brown from Texas popped open the device, it blew apart melting plastic bits in the car which got embedded on his face and neck. Due to the trauma, he died two days later at John Peter Smith Hospital.

Medical examiners ruled the cause of death as “penetrating trauma from an exploding vaporizer pen”.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Brown is the second person in the country to be killed by an exploding e-cigarette.

“He popped it and it exploded, and that’s when it shot across his mouth,” Alice Brown, William’s grandmother, told WFAA. “When they X-rayed him, they found the stem, the metal embedded to where the blood flows up to the brain.”

She also told the media outlet that investigators in the case informed her that the device’s battery malfunction caused the deadly explosion. She found a piece of the battery with its serial number in her car, which the investigators said was very important.

Brown was actually not a regular smoker. His doctor suggested that specialized vape might improve his asthma symptoms. So, on January 27, Brown bought a vape pen from Smoke & Vape DZ in Keller.

A 2017 report found that between 2009 and 2016,  the US Fire Administration received 133 acute injuries that resulted from using e-cigarettes, vaporizers and other similar devices, but no deaths were reported.

However, the Star-Telegram cited that last May, Tallmadge D’Elia , 38 and from Florida, was killed by a “projectile wound of the head” and suffered multiple injuries with burns on about 80 percent of his body caused by an exploding e-cigarette.

One of the pieces retrieved from D’Elia’s head was a bit part of the Smok-E Mountain Mech Works logo, a Philippine-based company, says the New York Times.

Meanwhile, a store employee who witnessed the incident told the Dallas Morning News that the vape pen was not bought at the location. The employee was later advised by authorities not to divulge the details of Brown’s death.