With a series of incidents involving the use of cheap or inappropriate chargers having been reported in the UK in recent times, the latest of these incidents includes a huge explosion at a Ringwood, Hampshire, family home --- the cause of the explosion, and subsequent fire, being the plugging of an e-cigarette into a faulty charger.

The incident took place this week, after an e-cigarette plugged in a faulty charger caused an explosion and set on fire a family home situated on Southampton Road in Ringwood.

A woman escaped the explosion after her smoke alarm alerted her to the fire in an upstairs bedroom of the house. She ran downstairs before the explosion, when the smoke alarm - the battery of which was changed the previous week - sound the alert of a potential fire.

The explosion was caused by the heating of a pressurised canister of an air horn which was in the room in which the e-cigarette was being charged.

According to the details shared by the investigators from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, the explosion and the ignition of the fire has been traced to the USB plug charging an e-cigarette.

In reference to the recent incident, the Service's group manager Dan Tasker has cautioned the people that "plugs need to be appropriate for the device they are charging and not all can be transferred between devices;" and added: "The consequences of using the wrong charger with the wrong device can be devastating."