A man has issued a stark warning to vape users after his trousers "burst into flames" while he drank in the pub.
Blayre Turnbull, 26, was enjoying a pint with his dad earlier this month when the e-cigarette in his pocket exploded and set on fire.
The barber, from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, was rushed to hospital where doctors had to clean battery acid and vape liquid from his wounds.
Not only did he have to ditch his flaming trousers in front of punters but the device burned through his flesh so deep it exposed his tendons.
Blayre told the Daily Record : “My vape just burst into flames, now I’ve got third-degree burns on my leg. The burns are so severe that they’ve scalded right through to my tendons.
“They’ve had to take skin from one thigh to use as a skin graft. I’m scarred for life now. My hand was all blistered up all my fingers except my middle finger and I’ve got three or four huge blisters on my palm.”
Blayre claimed he had been using the vape outside the pub but noticed smoke coming from his trousers when he returned inside.
He said: “I didn’t know what was happening to begin with – I sounded like my vape was ‘sparking up’. I noticed the smoke was coming through my pocket and by the time I put my hand on it, it was on fire. I had to run away and drop my trousers. It wasn’t the best experience at all.”
Blayre believes the vape battery exploded.
Blayre was transferred from Crosshouse Hospital to a specialist burns unit in Glasgow at the Royal Infirmary, where medics told him his vape burns were one of the worst cases they had seen.
He said: “They said it is quite a common thing that vapes blow up in people’s pockets. They’ve had to perform a skin graft taken from my other thigh, the donor leg will heal up perfectly but the other one is going to scar pretty badly.”
Following his operation, he is recovering at home but warned others to never leave vapes in a pocket.
He added: “I’ll never have one in my pocket again and I would definitely urge people not to put them in their pocket. Once it's on fire, it is nuts what can happen.”
Vape retailer VPZ confirmed Blayre purchased the vape in September 2020 and said that all its products were regulated and approved by The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
The firm strongly advised that customers use a protective case for external batteries, which are provided with all batteries to ensure “they are stored safely and correctly when not in use”.
A spokesperson added: “We provide all of our customers with a battery safety guide to help them use their vaping kit in a responsible way, and recommend that they change external batteries every six months if they are a heavy user and once a year if a light user."
