MADISON, Maine — A motorized wheelchair caught fire Tuesday morning while sitting on the deck of an apartment building that houses elderly residents.
The Madison Fire Department responded to a call at 9:43 a.m. that an electric scooter had caught fire at 1 Madison Ave.
“One of the tenants was outside watering the plants when she noticed the scooter was on fire,” said Laurie Manzer, resident service coordinator for the apartment complex named One Madison Avenue.
The scooter had been sitting on the deck for several days without being used, and it wasn’t being charged when it caught on fire. It was owned by one of the tenants.
Manzer said she was able to extinguish the foot-high flames with a fire extinguisher before the fire department arrived.
“He’d been having trouble charging it. Obviously there was something wrong with it,” said Manzer.
“It had to have been a short circuit [that started the fire],” said Madison Fire Chief Roger Lightbody. “You could see it definitely started around the batteries.”
Lightbody said the fire gave off a lot of black smoke because of the plastic on the motorized wheelchair.
“That’s a first for me. I’ve never seen one of them go [up in flames before],” said Lightbody.
Manzer didn’t know what company produced the chair.
“It’s still sitting in our parking lot,” said Manzer. “I think the tenant will call the company [he bought it from].”
No one was hurt by the fire, said Lightbody.
Talk about your hot seat. I’m glad it wasn’t in use when it happened.
Better not be a Medicare wheelchair….they’ll only ‘buy’ you a wheel chair every 5 years.
It would be nice to see a followup on this story reporting the brand of wheelchair/scooter and the actual cause after the investigation is finished. (The headline says wheelchair and the story says scooter?)
Are there recalls for this sort of problem with this specific brand of transporter?
Is it a specialized transporter or a drug store supplied transporter?
Was it the battery or the wiring in the actual machine?
Where should people call for more information?
How many of the specific model are out in use?
This is a case for the FDA’s Medical Device’s people. These chair’s are everywhere and if one of these chair’s has a manufacturing defect then it’s a fair guess that they all have them. The DHHS’s Inspector General was looking into these manufacturer’s a couple of years ago regarding their construction and their backbilling thru Medicare practice’s. Got ugly for a while at last report. This might open it up all over again.
And good for Laurie Manzer and the Madison FD ! Keep your head glued on straight, don’t do the ‘Chicken Little’ and pay attention to the problem. You all done REAL GOOD !