A Wichita man says he and his family are lucky after his e-cig exploded and pieces of it pierced through walls.

WICHITA, KAN. — A Wichita man says he and his family are lucky after his e-cig exploded and pieces of it pierced through walls.

Jonathan Rarser says his soon-to-be-wife wanted him to stop smoking traditional cigarettes. He purchased an e-cigarette from a store near downtown Wichita.

Reser says he followed the manufacture guidelines on his e-cig, which he says cost around $112.

“I went to charge the battery and went to put it into my e-cigarette, I heard a sizzling like it was hitting and I hadn’t pushed the button yet. I was on my way to listen to it and when I went to listen to it, it just went bam, like a bullet,” Reser said.

Reser says the e-cig broke into two pieces that penetrated opposite walls on his home and scattered pieces of metal and plastic across his home.

A FEMA report from October 2014 says that when a lithium-ion battery fails on a e-cig, it can behave like a “flaming rocket.”

Reser says the e-cig exploded with enough force to kill someone and he is thankful he was the only one hurt; he suffered very minor burns to his hand.

He says that he took the e-cig back to the store. Reser says the store’s staff pointed to a sign that read “e-cigarettes can explode” and he says that they told him he needed to purchase a small computer chip to keep the battery from exploding. Reser says the store did not offer to sell him the chip when he first purchased the e-cig.

Source: KAKE