Girl hit with e-cigarette 'fireball' on Harry Potter ride
A 14-year-old girl was treated for burns Saturday after a malfunctioning e-cigarette shot a "fireball" on the Hogwarts Express train at Universal Orlando in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
She was taking the ride between Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure park with her family when the device exploded at around 3:30 p.m. local time, police told the paper.
The e-cigarette was in the pocket of a man traveling with friends on the train. It blew up and caused a small explosion that left him with injuries to his leg.
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"It was just a weird, freak accident that unfortunately caused injuries to two people," police Lt. Dan Brady said. "It wasn't a big explosion but was definitely enough to scare everyone who was in that cab of the train."
The explosion also burnt a hole in the train seat and the ride was temporarily shut down. The girl was taken to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children with mild to moderate burns on the right side of her face.
The Hogwarts Express opened in summer 2014. It combines "powerful storytelling, live special effects, lifelike animation and technology to take riders on the journey of a lifetime," the park says.
Earlier this year, a man in Kentucky suffered third degree burns after an e-cigarette battery exploded in his pocket.
Topics Harry Potter
Tim Chester was Senior Editor, Real Time News in Los Angeles. Before that he was Deputy Editor of Mashable UK in London. Prior to joining Mashable, Tim was a Senior Web Editor at Penguin Random House, helping to relaunch the Rough Guides website and other travel brands. He was also a writer for Buzzfeed, GQ and The Sunday Times, covering everything from culture to tech and current affairs. Before that, he was Deputy Editor at NME.COM, overseeing content and development on the London-based music and entertainment site. Tim loves music and travel and has combined these two passions at festivals from Iceland to Malawi and beyond.
