There have been stories of mobile phone batteries blowing up when kids had accidentally put their tongue on the battery’s small ends. But a bizarre incident happened with a 10-year old boy in Baikunthpur town of Korea district on Thursday when his jaw was severely disfigured by a powerful blast from a ‘television remote’ when he had put his tongue on the batteries in its rear side compartment. The blast also injured the boy’s face, chest and hand.
Deepak Kumar, a resident of Katkona Tendupara was rushed to a district hospital for emergency treatment. This could also be the first incident of its kind in the entire country where a TV remote had blown up due to the tongue coming in contact with the battery terminals.
Hearing the loud sound of the blast, the victim’s family members and neighbours had rushed to the room where the boy was watching TV only to find him lying in a pool of blood. The remains of the remote were scattered all over the room.
“We were shocked as well as scared after seeing Deepak’s condition. The incident also raised questions on safety from these electronic items” said the boy’s neighbour, Ranjeet.
The doctors said of immediately performing a surgery to save the boy. His condition was stated out of danger but it would take time to heal the multiple wounds suffered by him.
“Thus far, the news of mobile phone explosions from different parts of the world has been doing rounds but it would probably be first of its kind incident, where the TV remote exploded” said Anant Singh, an engineer.
He claimed that explosion in the batteries including that of TV remote can also occur if it’s both positive and negative terminals (see the sign of + and – on the cells) are connected with any good conductor of electricity.
“Power can easily flow through the tongue, thus giving earthing in TV remote’s positive and negative terminals can lead to the explosion” explained Singh. He also advised that one should never use the mobile phone while it is charging. A battery on its own does not have power to create the blast. It needs an external source.