News 13 investigated the dangers of phone chargers after an Horry County Fire Rescue investigation determined a house fire this month was caused by a charger.
Lieutenant Bryan Turner with Horry County Fire Rescue says that a lot of house fires have been started by faulty chargers which usually end being the cheaper products as opposed to the manufacturer’s products that come with the device.
He says the cheap chargers, like the ones you can purchase as a gas station, are not intended for one specific device so they easily over-charge something small like a phone.
Lt. Bryan says stay with the device while it is charging and take off any casing to make sure it is not overheating.
“What I would do, I would stick to checking chargers even if I didn’t go with a factory chargers. I would check for UL listing. You can always go to UL and make sure it’s sufficient through them,” he said.
Lt. Turner says to never have a phone charger plugged in out of sight like behind a desk or a bookshelf and never leave a phone charger plugged in overnight.
For more information on UL listings go here: http://ul.com/corporate/marks/ul-listing-and-classification-marks/
