Spalding mum's warning after son's vape caught fire and caused him serious burns

A mother has warned about the dangers of vape devices after her son ended up in hospital with serious burns when his clothes caught fire.

Kieran Avis (21), of Spalding, is currently recovering from a skin graft in Nottingham City Hospital after his e-cigarette came into contact with keys and caught fire in his pocket.

Now his mum Racheal (52) is warning people to be careful where they keep their device, as batteries rubbing against a metal item such as keys can cause a fire.

Racheal said: “It could have been a lot worse for Kieran. We just want to put out a warning to people who don’t know about this. If they don’t know about this - it could happen to them.

“The next person might not be so lucky.”

Kieran had been to visit a friend on Sunday, June 20, when the incident happened.

Racheal, who was not present at the time, received a phone call from the friend to tell her that Kieran’s vape had ‘blown up’ and that he had been burned.

She said: “There was no warning about not having keys in your pocket along with a vape. He sat down and it exploded and set him alight.

“Within a couple of seconds his clothes caught fire and burned his friend’s settee.

“It set his coat on fire, his T-shirt and his trousers were alight.”

Racheal then collected her son from the friend’s house and took him to the minor injuries unit at Spalding’s Johnson Hospital.

While she could not go into the hospital with her son, Racheal was initially asked to go home and collect fresh clothes from her son.

But when she returned, Racheal was told that Kieran was being transferred to a burns unit.

She said: “I thought that he could be coming home because they had asked me to get his clean clothes.

“They said he needed to go to Nottingham burns unit as it was so deep.

“It is quite a big burn on his stomach. He has burns on his arms and fingers.”

Kieran underwent surgery at the hospital, which is a leader in providing burn care, on Tuesday to have a skin graft.

Racheal said: “He had a procedure because the burn was so deep on his stomach that they had to cut the dead skin away.”

It is hoped that the hospital will be able to discharge Kieran shortly, but he needs help with his personal care and a package has not yet been put together.

Racheal said: “Facetime is not the same as visiting. He is putting a brave face on.

“I am so lucky that he is still here.”

London Fire Brigade has warned that a short circuit and an explosion can happen when the battery of a vape comes into contact with a metal item such as keys or coins.

E-cigarettes, which were invented in the 1960s, were introduced to Europe in 2006.

The NHS says e-cigarettes are not risk free but carry a small fraction of the risk of normal cigarettes.