The owner of a Swagway hoverboard that caught fire in his Chappaqua, New York home has filed a lawsuit against the company and the store that sold the device, Modell's Sporting Goods.
The lawsuit, filed as a class action complaint last week, comes as Swagway, and other hoverboards manufacturers, face intense scrutiny over safety standards.
[seealso slug="100-best-iphone-apps"]
In November, Michael Brown bought the hoverboard online for $399 as a Hanukkah for his children, according to a report from Fortune. The lawsuit claims that just 45 minutes after Brown plugged the Swagway into an electrical outlet to give it a charge, the hoverboard burst into flames.
"The fire was so substantial that the fire department had to respond to the scene," the lawsuit states. "The fire destroyed the Swagway Hoverboard and damaged Plaintiff's home."
The allegations mirror those given to Mashable last week during an interview with Chappaqua Fire Chief Russell Maitland about the incident.
When asked about the fire during our initial report, a Swagway spokesperson told Mashable, "We heard about that incident and are currently investigating it at this time."
Brown's lawsuit (see the complaint here)--which was filed in U.S. District Court in Indiana, where Swagway has its main office--alleges that the Swagway device "was inherently defectively designed or manufactured" and as a result, the lawsuit is seeking "unspecified compensatory and punitive damages."
"Investigations are being conducted to try to determine why this one Swagway, out of the tens of thousands sold by multiple retailers, appears to have been involved in a fire," a Modell's spokesperson told NBC News. "The Swagway brand is the only hoverboard sold by Modell's Sporting Goods."
Modell's plans to "vigorously defend against the claims made in the complaint," according to the NBC News report.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a strong warning that included a set of hoverboard guidelines. The statement also highlighted the fact that an investigation into burning hoverboards is ongoing.
The agency is investigating 10 hoverboard-related fires in nine states, a CPSC spokesperson told Mashable over the weekend.
"We urge consumers to report incidents to CPSC," CPSC Chairman Elliot F. Kaye said in a statement Wednesday, directing consumers with hoverboard problems to the agency's website.