Exploding flashlight kills man

Water ingress from saliva causes a short?

[quote=everydaysurvivalgear]
Every day millions if not billions of people hold lithium batteries to there faces by using there phones i dont think its such an issue if engineered well. [/QUOTE]

Phones aren’t good for holding the pressure - in most cases I can throw it away if I feel phone burning. Also, typically phones are held far enough from most sensitive parts (eyes, mouth…)

Those batteries look to have been 123A type IN SERIES….danger Will Robinson ! Those have been indicated as potentially dangerous before.

And what is the possibility he could have had RCR123’s installed And In Series ! :open_mouth:

Not enough info.

Yep, there are these things called headlamps!

Headlamps, sure… perhaps an explosion near the frontal lobe does less damage.

Odd coincidence that the OP’s name has something to do with death and mortality…

12 volt through a 3v or 4.2v battery , yep !
Thats pretty much how they make Li-ion / LIPO go boom …
From serious over volting …

Check out youtube , I saw one where the guy tried and tried to make lipo fire and failed … Only succeeding when seriously over volting the battery …
Reverse polarity short is ?? , over volting is pretty much a sure thing . ( A lot of extra volts - not just a little )

The boom ! Lipo fire can be nothing , or it can be magic smoke , or flame and smoke , or a small bang and flame or it can be a pipe bomb …
It’s just the luck of the draw , and if 12 volts got jammed through those batteries , ?? it could have been a pipe bomb . ( Those nasty variables )

Guess the skull protects a little…. I would be concerned about eyes though.

Why is this please?

Lithium batteries in series are always dangerous if one of them depleted earlier than others. It heat up very fast as i encountered this a few times for both rechargeable and non rechargeable, bad quality one will explode i guess.

Thank you very much.

No problem. I had one time used two genuine Energizer AA lithium bought at local shop like Watson or Guardian, some how one of them depleted earlier and i suddenly felt flashlight battery tube was getting hot. I quickly switched it off and measured the voltage of them, one was like 0v. It is confirmed by my own experiences it’s not safe to give lithium batteries to common flashlight user. I think i made this mistake when i gave my family some AA flashlight thinking AA is safe. Now i give them USB rechargeable flashlight only.

I wonder if was the car battery exploding and the torch is unrelated or maybe the torch only caused a short or his watch or something else on or near the car battery that might have ignited the hydrogen gas.

Find it hard to see a torch that someone could fit in their mouth would have the power to kill them, but could see a large lead acid battery exploding close to someones face or head having enough power to cause serious injuries or maybe even killing them

I don’t understand why people still use 2 CR123 instead of a single 18650?

Surefire/Streamlight conditioning?

I think most people don’t think about risks that are relatively rare and that has never happened to them. Look at all the people who buy reloads at gun shows from people they’ve never seen before who may or may not know what they’re doing. And high pressure rifle rounds that let go right next to your face can do a lot more damage than any flashlight battery that vents/etc.

lithium cells don’t explode from one to another second
they heat up rapidly and I doubt it if he had the light in his mouth he would not notice it

also the light quits working when the cell gets an internal short, so he would take it out to inspect the light

very likely a short over the car battery

most likely they were holding the flashlight in their mouths using their teeth. If that is the case, they won’t feel the heat much if only their teeth were touching the flashlight.

CR123 primary cells certainly have their place. They have a higher energy density, and a much longer “full charge” shelf life than secondary cells.
So, they are preferred for lights/devices that may be used infrequently and/or stored for long periods of time, but need to work reliably when the time comes. :beer:

Also, unless I missed something, I don’t see where the article in the OP stated what type of light and/or batteries were used at the time.:question:
The only identifying info/pics I saw linked in this thread (Solarforce with CR123s) were related to a different incident that happened a couple years back.

I think if flashlight batteries explosion happened close enough to the car battery, the resulting huge spark could have triggered another explosion.