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| Tallmadge Wakeman D'Elia, 38, may have been killed by a vape pen that exploded, sparking the fire in his home in St. Petersburg, Florida |
Injuries to D'Elia's face indicated his e-cigarette exploded.
Florida man who was found dead after a house fire on Saturday may have been killed by a vape pen that exploded, sparking the blaze, authorities said on Monday.
St. Petersburg firefighters said they found Tallmadge D'Elia, 38, dead inside a second-floor bedroom in his house on 316 19th Avenue Northeast in St. Petersburg after receiving a call from a smoke alarm monitoring company. The fire originated in the bedroom, they said.
"From the information we gathered on scene through process of elimination, we narrowed it down that the ignition source was a vape that was being used," said Lt. Steven Lawrence, the deputy fire marshal.
The official cause of the fire, as well as D'Elia's cause of death, has not been released pending further investigation and an autopsy, but Lawrence noted that the injuries sustained by D’Elia were consistent with a lithium-ion battery explosion. Authorities have yet to learn the manufacturer of D'Elia's vape.
"We believe that there's a possibility that the battery pack used in the vape mod had an issue and exploded, and that was the ignition of the fire."
D’Elia began smoking cigarettes while working in the television industry, but began vaping several years ago as a means of quitting, according to relatives.
"A lot of people who work in TV end up smoking, so he picked up vaping to try and stop smoking cigarettes," said D'Elia's father, Christopher, who noted that his son often went by the nickname Wake.
"I saw him using it and I didn't think about any inherent dangers of using it, but now I know that there's something not right. He was a very bright, friendly, happy guy who loved kids; a really nice individual. People loved him," Christopher D'Elia said.
Vaping is inhaling the aerosol, commonly called vapor, produced by electronic cigarettes to simulate the act of smoking tobacco.
D'Elia would not be the first vaper to fall victim to an exploding vape pen: in January 2017, an Idaho man suffered second-degree burns on his neck and lost nine teeth after a vape he was using exploded in his mouth. In 2016, a vape user in New York suffered third-degree burns when the device exploded in his pants pocket while he was at work.
Despite this, vaping advocates continue to stand by the safety of vapor products, insisting that events such as these can be avoided with a bit of attentiveness.
"Millions of adults use vapor products regularly and incidents like these are not common," Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, a nonprofit that advocates for vapor products as a tool to help smokers quit, said in an e-mail. "When charged, stored and used under proper conditions, vapor products pose no more of a fire risk than cellphones and laptops that use similar lithium-ion batteries."
However, he said, short circuits can occur when battery-operated products are subjected to extreme conditions or used with unwrapped or damaged batteries. "For those consumers wishing to use more advanced products, learning and practicing battery safety is a must," he added.
Tallmadge Wakeman "Wake" D'ELIA
1979 - 2018 Obituary
was born December 16, 1979 in Leonardtown, Maryland. He grew up in Solomons, Maryland, on the banks of the Patuxent River, a place that he loved his whole life. As an ardent and skilled in-line skater, he played both ice and roller hockey in his youth. He was a talented photographer and videographer, which he began doing as an avocation in high school and which later became his life's work. He was a 1998 graduate of the Key School in Annapolis, Maryland, and a 2002 graduate of the University at Albany SUNY, where he majored in History and Mass Communication and made the Dean's list. He was a great skier, a music lover and music composer. He played guitar and bass. He was a television technical specialist in the New York City area for most of his career. He worked at NY1 News and then at CNBC, part of NBC Universal, where he was most recently the Technical Production Supervisor for the morning business show, Squawk Box. His hard work and performance was formally recognized by CNBC numerous times. In 2004, he married Maria Lamberti from Cava dei Tirreni, Italy, whom he met at SUNY Albany. They lived in Clifton Park, NJ, then Cava dei Tirreni, Italy and finally in St. Petersburg, Florida where he died May 5, 2018 in a tragic accident at home. He is survived by wife, Maria Lamberti of Cava dei Tirreni, Italy; parents, Jennifer H. D'Elia and Christopher F. D'Elia of St. Petersburg, Florida, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; grandmother, Marian D'Elia of Mystic, Connecticut; aunts and uncles, Tonita Disch of Mount Dora, Florida, Harry Hunnicutt, of Dexter, Missouri, Kermit Hunnicutt of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, John and Lesley Trevor of Lake Placid, New York, Jonathan and Marj D'Elia of Bridgeport, Connecticut; eleven cousins; in-laws, Carmine Lamberti and Emilia Rispoli, brothers-in-law, Vincenzo and Silvio Lamberti; sister-in-law, Nicoletta Cirino; and his cherished nieces, Camilla and Alice Lamberti.==============================
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida man died earlier this month when an e-cigarette exploded, burning 80% of his body, the Pinellas County medical examiner's office says.
Tallmadge "Wake" D'Elia was found May 5 by firefighters, who suspected a vaping pen was the cause of death. The medical examiner's office confirmed the pen caused his death on Tuesday.
Injuries to D'Elia's face indicated his e-cigarette exploded, burning 80% of his body, according to a medical examiner's report.
Exploding
e-cigarettes and pens are extremely rare, and most explosions center
around the battery, but they happen enough to cause concern at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The federal agency recently put out a fact sheet with some safety recommendations:
- Never carry e-cig batteries loose in your pocket, especially where they might come into contact with coins, keys or other metal objects which can cause the battery to short out.
- Never use you phone or tablet charger. Use the charger that originally came with the device.
- Don’t charge your vape device while sleeping or leave it unattended.
- Charge it on a flat surface away from anything that can catch fire. Don’t charge it on your couch or bed.
- Always replace the batteries if they get damaged or wet.
- Always use batteries recommended for your device and don’t mix and match different brands or mix old and new batteries.
- Never alter your device or disable the safety features like fire button locks or vent holes.
- Protect your vape from extreme temperatures by not leaving it in direct sunlight or in a freezing car overnight.