Police light exploded cop injured

[byron8]

This morning on the news in Houston said an officer was injured because his flashlight exploded. Does anyone know what light they use. I wonder if it is one that has hot exposed charging terminals. That is the danger I saw in LAPD Pelican light as it has hot exposed terminal that could short out and cause explosion.

 

[Echo63]

dunno if the Pelican LAPD light is the same, but the pelican M11 has a diode protecting the user from shorting the charger ports.

hope the cop is getting better, and makes a full recovery

 

[byron8]

I found the link to the tv news article.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7048162&rss=rss-ktrk-article-7048162

 

[dano]

I bet he was using some 123-cell powered light with cheap 123 cells.


I doubt it was a name brand rechargeable.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou091005_tnt_exploding-flashlight.1e81746a5.html

This article states it was a plastic light, but no model was mentioned.

 

[Jida]

I heard it was a [INSERT LIGHT YOU LOVE OR WANT] and he did nothing wrong.

 

[gottawearshades]

FTA:"[FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]The second officer was hit in the arm by debris from the explosion[/FONT]."

As if being a cop weren't tough enough already.

<idle speculation>I'll bet they mixed old and new lithium cells.</idle speculation>

 

[Outdoors Fanatic]

Ultrafire batteries or any other crap from DX?

 

[EngrPaul]

"Police said the exploding flashlight was made of plastic, rather than metal like the older models. They believe the battery may have caused the malfunction, and the plastic wasn't strong enough to contain it. "

 

[Crenshaw]

they better be damn well pleased that it was plastic then. IF it was a battery explosion, and a metal, more or less water proof light, the pressure would have been greater, and potentially end up making sharpenal.

The lights in that picture is a maglight right? no risk of exploding there, only leaking.

they should ask US...we would know.....

My guess is someone got lazy and thought "oh well, ill just put in one new cell it will compensate for the other dead one"

Crenshaw

 

[Outdoors Fanatic]

"Police said the exploding flashlight was made of plastic, rather than metal like the older models. They believe the battery may have caused the malfunction, and the plastic wasn't strong enough to contain it. "

If it was a metal flashlight, it would become a pipebomb and everybody in the room would be seriously injured or killed.

 

[Curt R]

The plastic body of the flashlight would have been weakened by the heat generated by the battery before it exploded. With a metal body light there is not enough energy in the battery to cause any damage to the battery case, therefore no danger to anyone. Both Stre@mlight and Surf-fire and Innnnova make models in plastic. Pay the extra money and buy the metal versions for quality.

Curt

 

[Crenshaw]

The plastic body of the flashlight would have been weakened by the heat generated by the battery before it exploded. With a metal body light there is not enough energy in the battery to cause any damage to the battery case, therefore no danger to anyone. We make only metal lights at Peak. Both Stre@mlight and Surf-fire and Innnnova make models in plastic. Pay the extra money and buy metal.

Curt

shamless plug?

or advertising?

Crenshaw

 

[Sgt. LED]

IN either case or none of the above I think he's right.
Almost all metal bodied lights blow the glass out or the boot off without really making a pipe bomb. A little hazardous if it's in your mouth or pocket sure.

 

[MrGman]

Lots of meaningless speculation and some really useless comments by some (not all) going on here. This is an important topic that needs far more intelligent input of useful facts rather than nonsense like advertisements for certain brand of flashlights with no proven track record simply because they are made out of metal or comments like this

" I heard it was a [INSERT LIGHT YOU LOVE OR WANT] and he did nothing wrong. "

That statement adds absolutely nothing of value to this issue.

When some serious information as to what brand and model flashlight it was and what type of batteries were being used is made public, that should be posted here and then we can make some intelligent comments.

And shrapnel is spelled shrapnel not sharpenal. We have no way of knowing if the operator did anything wrong with mxing good batteries with bad or weak ones, whether it was over charged, whether it would have had enough energy to turn a metal flashlight shell into shrapnel or not. At least not at this time.

From personal experience:
I now have a fairly large collection of lithium rechargeable batteries, all bought new and being used in over 16 flashlights in pairs. Once I put a pair of cells to a flashlight I normally don't mix them up any more, they stay as a set. However, I have noticed some flashlights having gone dim rather quickly and upon testing the cells I have found one discharged and the other fully charged in a couple of cases. Having the equipment to do so, I try to match the cells more closely to each other and put the newly matched set (by voltage under load) in pairs when I find some that hold up better than others. Not everyone is going to even know to do such a thing. Point is its very possible to have cells that are not closely matched to each other as many of you already know and the weakest one can discharge and start to reverse charge and bad things may happen.

But we don't know that is the case here. That is just an example of something that could go wrong. We need facts. Whoever sees more facts about this case please post that right away. Thanks, G.

 

[kramer5150]

I hope he is OK.

Without further details its impossible to determine root cause. But this thread can serve a useful purpose to remind CPF'ers of the dangers in using air tight, aluminum bodied lights. Safety first!!

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=107

 

[Illum]

I hope he is OK.

Without further details its impossible to determine root cause. But this thread can serve a useful purpose to remind CPF'ers of the dangers in using air tight, aluminum bodied lights. Safety first!!

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=107

aluminum bodied lights...should "hot gases" expand inside it, it should blow out the front, then the back [assuming the batteries are facing toward]...I have not heard of a aluminum bodied flashlight peeling open like a banana due to battery explosions. I don't know if gun barrels exhibit this form of destruction though.

 

[dano]

For several years, now, there have been numerous bulletins in the LEO community about 123 cells, specifically overseas made cells, and the explosion hazard. It's nothing new.

Assuming that this was a lithium based light.

Shouldn't this thread be moved to General, as there's no LED content to speak of.

 

[Pekka]

aluminum bodied lights...should "hot gases" expand inside it, it should blow out the front, then the back [assuming the batteries are facing toward]

Consider me as a newbie in seek of knowledge. Why front?
I assume because the vent is on the positive terminal, but wouldn't the pressure even out fast enough in battery tube? They're not air-tight or even close to, as all my batteries "rattle" around unless spring tightened... My common sense would guess the weaker end giving up first, being rubber boot on the opposite side. :thinking:

 

[Curt R]

Sorry, got carried away as safety and quality rather than cheep gets to me.

Curt

 

[Outdoors Fanatic]

For several years, now, there have been numerous bulletins in the LEO community about 123 cells, specifically overseas made cells, and the explosion hazard. It's nothing new.

Assuming that this was a lithium based light.

Shouldn't this thread be moved to General, as there's no LED content to speak of.

+1

I agree, this is 100% General Flashlight Discussion material.