Blackhawk Flashlight literally exploded like a bomb

I just had a Blackhawk Falcata 6 volt explode less than a foot from me. It blew shrapnel into my arm and leg, hit me in the face with a large piece of metal, and i inhaled some unpleasant gas that is made me sick and dizzy. I'm bleeding from about 15 places

If that's not bad enough, the pants and shirt I was wearing are badly burned, and my couch has a 6 inch diameter hole 3 inches deep burned in it and small shrapnel holes all over it.

I am pissed off beyond words but i talked to 2 vice presidents at blackhawk this morning. They were very nice, and said they would pay for everything including my couch if it turned out that their flashlight was responsible.

They asked me to send in the parts of the light that i have left, and i told them i would if my lawyer okayed it.

What type of batteries was it using?

If they were CR123A primaries, what brand?

energizer 123a

both pretty new, and fully charged

Sorry to hear what happened to you. Hope you'll be ok.

Am also curious about what batteries you were using, what brand they were.

Info from incorrect weblink removed.

A few questions:
What brand batteries were you using?
Do you have pictures of the damage caused?
How long were you using the light before it exploded?

Also, a strong recommendation:
Print this out and go to a doctor and tell him you may have been exposed to the chemical fumes of exploded 123's
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/lithiummangdioxide_psds.pdf

first, this is the light

http://www.blackhawk.com/product/Night-Ops-Falcata-6-Volt,501,40.htm

it is a 2 cell light, not one.

second, i was using walmart Energizer 123a cell batteries

Third, i was not using the light at all. It was sitting on my couch.

A little back story will serve here.

I had had this light for about a year, and a few weeks ago, the bulb went out. Blackhawk customer service sent me a new one free of charge.

It came in the mail yesterday, and i replaced the non-functioning one with it. Very simple procedure. The light didn't work with the new bulb, so i clicked it back off and set it on the couch thinking i'd just worry about it later. 2 hours later, my girlfriend and i were watching a movie on that same couch, and i heard a pop then less than a second later, a huge boom that sounded like a shotgun blast.

I was hit in the face with something metal, and the entire left side of my body was hit with burning crap and glass. I was cut in about 20 places, 2 of which were bleeding profusely. My couch was pretty much completely destroyed, and my clothes are a total loss. I inhaled a bunch of dust/gas, and coughed a LOT. That is when i decided to go to the ER.

http://i39.tinypic.com/14t7fvs.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/zmi638.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/2ihr1br.jpg

RAGE CAGE said:

Scary stuff there- on a 1 cell 123 torch? What brand,type batt were you using? Single cell lights are SUPPOSED to be safe:candle: and not go .
Pics please...this is crazy. Did you mod the light from the orig. bulb?

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uh... the thread op did say "6V"
what single cell cr123A light do you own thats "6v"? :shrug:
http://www.blackhawk.com/product/Night-Ops-Falcata-6-Volt,501,40.htm

Illum said:

uh... the thread op did say "6V"
what single cell cr123A light do you own thats "6v"? :shrug:
http://www.blackhawk.com/product/Night-Ops-Falcata-6-Volt,501,40.htm

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uh....sorry.....I should have went to the manufacturers website first.
Corrected post- sounds like you already know what happened......

First hope that you will be okay, have a doctor check you out and tell him/her that you inhaled fumes from the batteries and what they were exactly.

Next tell us exactly what batteries you had, name brand, voltage rating, rechargeable or single use, whether or not they had a full charge on them or if you had put a fresh battery in with an older one, info like that. What the run time was on the batteries prior to the , and if you have more of these batteries at home. Very important stuff.

The light is an incan light with two 3 volt lithium batteries (Probably CR123).
With an incan bulb it can discharge the batteries completely or reverse charge one battery.

the following is a potential explanation as to what could have happened. It is speculation based on the new input above, not a verified failure analysis: It is very possible that the "new bulb" was a defect and the filaments were shorted and when you turned it on it drew high current. Turning it off may not have actually switched off the current. the switch contacts may have been damaged from high current flow of turn on into a shorted filament. So its possible it was sitting there drawing current in the couch even though there was no light output and then eventually one battery got depleted, reverse charged first and blew.

It is also possible that the lamp assembly was not installed correctly and that caused a short that bypassed the lamp altogether.

I have had one switch that failed when I tested a high current SST-50 direct drive LED through it that was drawing 4.7 amps. It would not turn off when I switched it off. In this case I knew the flashlight was on by light coming out of the LED and undid the tail cap to turn the light off. If there was a short circuit where there was no light output you would not know that it was still stuck in the on position drawing current.

the part we would need to examine is the lamp assembly.

That's my theory at the moment.

Is that a battery charger that I see in your first picture? Should you be charging primary Cr123's in a charger, you can expect the batteries and or light to explode. I don't know if you did charge primaries but that could definitely do the trick. Basically, I just hope that you are okay and no permanent damage was done to either you and or you're girlfriend.

Man, that's scary!

energizer 123a

both pretty new, and fully charged

Click to expand...

It sounds like it might have been user error though... you talk about "fully charged" energizer 123s... charging primaries is a good way to make them explode!

Follow the directions on the package and only charge batteries that are intended to be charged.

MrGman said:

the following is a potential explanation as to what could have happened. It is speculation based on the new input above, not a verified failure analysis: It is very possible that the "new bulb" was a defect and the filaments were shorted and when you turned it on it drew high current. Turning it off may not have actually switched off the current. the switch contacts may have been damaged from high current flow of turn on into a shorted filament. So its possible it was sitting there drawing current in the couch even though there was no light output and then eventually one battery got depleted, reverse charged first and blew.

It is also possible that the lamp assembly was not installed correctly and that caused a short that bypassed the lamp altogether.

I have had one switch that failed when I tested a high current SST-50 direct drive LED through it that was drawing 4.7 amps. It would not turn off when I switched it off. In this case I knew the flashlight was on by light coming out of the LED and undid the tail cap to turn the light off. If there was a short circuit where there was no light output you would not know that it was still stuck in the on position drawing current.

the part we would need to examine is the lamp assembly.

That's my theory at the moment.

Click to expand...

unfortunately, the lamp assembly disintigrated into the dust that you see on the couch in the first picture as well as the glass that i pulled out of my leg and arm... it's not around to examine.

saabgoblin said:

Is that a battery charger that I see in your first picture? Should you be charging primary Cr123's in a charger, you can expect the batteries and or light to explode. I don't know if you did charge primaries but that could definitely do the trick. Basically, I just hope that you are okay and no permanent damage was done to either you and or you're girlfriend.

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that is the remote to my dvd player. I do not charge 123a batteries.

Beprepared said:

Even if the batteries fail the flashlight should not come apart like a shotgun shell.

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When batteries misbehave (understatement), the built up gasses inside the flashlight need to go somewhere.

Depending on how airtight the flashlight is, the gasses may vent out the tailcap area, bezel area (as yours appears to have), or the flashlight body may self destruct if the gasses are building up rapidly (which is usually the case).

Even Surefire flashlights (the cream of the crop) have come apart when CR123A primary cells failed.

EDIT: Scary pictures

The only real evidence you have is that the new lamp did not come on when installed. I see from the link to the vendor's site its an entire lamp assembly you are just dropping in and not a little tiny bi-pin lamp that you have to plug in yourself and could have an accident with. If that is correct, the likelyhood that you could have "dropped it in" wrong is very low, but not Zero %. Its always possible that the center spring for the module was touching the positive terminal of the battery and also somehow touching the case wall. The metal spring would have been a very low resistive load to the batteries. It may be a remote possibility but still until its ruled out its still a possibility.

Were both batteries new or of the same previous condition, meaning they were both in the same light together previously and not having one or the other changed out?

both batteries were in THIS light previously, were purchased the same day, and had been in this light together from the day i bought them. They were almost never used, but they worked just fine until the bulb went out.

MrGman said:

Its always possible that the center spring for the module was touching the positive terminal of the battery and also somehow touching the case wall. The metal spring would have been a very low resistive load to the batteries. It may be a remote possibility but still until its ruled out its still a possibility.

Click to expand...

+1

I'm not familiar with the internals of the Falcata. Do you remove the tail cap to insert the batteries, or are they inserted through the head side of the body? Maybe this is similar to the issue we see with the springs on P60 lamps getting deflected if the batteries aren't removed when lamps are replaced?

Glad you're OK, BTW.