She said a gift fire blanket helped stop flames before they spread.
LOS ANGELES, CA — A Woodland Hills woman said she suffered chemical burns and a thumb injury after a portable phone charger exploded on her bed and set it on fire in her apartment on Feb. 14, a scare that ended when she smothered the flames with a fire blanket.
The incident is the latest reminder of the risks tied to lithium-ion batteries used in common devices such as power banks, phones and tablets. Federal safety officials have issued recalls and warnings in recent months involving portable chargers that can overheat, ignite or explode. The woman, Ashley Nevel, said she bought the power bank online and never expected it could erupt within seconds, leaving her injured and scrambling to keep the bedroom fire from spreading to the rest of her home.
Nevel said she was in her bedroom Saturday morning when she set her phone down for a moment with the portable charger still connected. “Put my phone down for literally five seconds, and my portable charger, which was plugged into it, exploded,” she said. The blast sparked a fire on the bed, and she said chemicals from the device burned her arm as she tried to react. She grabbed a blanket to try to smother the flames, but it did not work, and the fire kept burning on the bedding as she looked for another way to stop it. “It was the scariest experience I ever had in my life,” she said.
With smoke and heat building in the room, Nevel said she remembered a housewarming gift from her father, a fire blanket kept in the kitchen. She ran to get it and laid it over the burning bed. “Ran in my kitchen, grabbed the fire blanket, put it over it,” she said. “It stopped the flames immediately.” After the flames were out, she said her phone had overheated and she could not rely on it, so she went to her balcony and yelled for help, asking neighbors to call 911. She later said she was hospitalized and continues to recover, including limited mobility in one thumb that makes it hard to grip objects normally.
Nevel said she bought the portable charger on Amazon over the summer. In the days after the incident, the product was no longer listed on the site, according to the report, and a company connected to the listing told the station that staff members were looking into what happened. The report said it did not find a federal recall under the brand name of the charger Nevel purchased, leaving open questions about the exact model, battery cell source and whether the unit was defective or damaged before it failed. Fire investigators and safety experts often look at several factors after a battery incident, including the charging cable and adapter used, the surface where the unit was charging, ventilation and any visible swelling or damage to the battery casing.
Portable chargers, sometimes called power banks, typically store energy in lithium-ion cells that can fail violently when overheated, punctured or manufactured improperly. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced multiple recalls involving power banks and charging products in the past year after reports of overheating, fires and burn injuries. In one recall posted in December, the agency said about 210,000 INIU power banks sold online were being recalled after reports of overheating incidents that included fires, minor burn injuries and significant property damage. Another recall posted in November involved certain Belkin portable power banks and wireless charging stands due to fire and burn hazards. Separate recalls covered hundreds of thousands of Casely portable chargers and more than a million Anker power banks following reports of overheating and fires.
Those actions do not mean every power bank is dangerous, but they show how quickly failures can escalate when heat builds and nearby materials ignite. Fire prevention officials have repeatedly warned that charging devices on soft surfaces such as beds and couches can trap heat and bring batteries close to flammable fabrics. In Nevel’s case, the burning bedspread and mattress area became the immediate fuel source, and the fire blanket helped cut off oxygen before flames spread beyond the bedroom. Nevel said she believes the outcome could have been far worse without the blanket, and she worries about what could have happened if she had been asleep or if the fire had grown into a larger apartment blaze.
No charges or legal action have been announced in connection with Nevel’s case, and it was not immediately clear whether the device would be examined by an outside laboratory or reported to federal safety officials as part of a broader pattern. The Consumer Product Safety Commission collects reports from consumers, medical providers and companies and can open investigations that lead to recalls, safety warnings or other actions. Product listings also can change quickly on large online marketplaces, with sellers sometimes removing items after complaints or replacing listings under new names. Nevel said she hopes sharing her experience will push more attention toward the risks and help prevent similar incidents.
For now, Nevel said she is focused on healing and regaining full use of her thumb while replaying the moments after the blast. “I could have died,” she said, adding that she feared the fire could have endangered other residents if it spread beyond her unit. Officials have not reported additional injuries connected to the same charger, and no wider recall tied to Nevel’s specific device had been identified by Thursday evening as the company reviewed the incident.
Author note: Last updated Friday, February 20, 2026.