WAUKESHA, Wis. —A hot holiday gift turned downright dangerous for a Waukesha man.

The tablets he ordered online caught fire in the box in which they were shipped.

Family members said the Waukesha Fire Department told them in another 10 minutes their home would have been on fire.

The smoke and odor from the burning box made them sick.
“And I kicked the box and a bunch of ash came out,” Karlie Everett said.
Everett said her family smelled an odor like burning plastic. When We Energies couldn't find the source, they called the fire department.

“So when we opened the box up, a bunch of smoke came out, and the four tablets had somehow started on fire by themselves,” Everett said.

She was talking about four RCA tablets her dad ordered online from Walmart as Christmas gifts to employees. Firefighters rushed the box outside.

The tablets arrived in a box on Friday, but the Everetts didn't open it until about 9:30 a.m. Monday. Within a couple of hours, they started to smell a strong odor.

“I had been vomiting the entire time because we were exposed for several hours,” Everett said.
“Obviously, there was heat being generated from somewhere within the packages,” Waukesha Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Sweet said.

Sweet said it will take further investigation to determine how the fire started.
“Got down to the boxes and saw there was charring to the boxes. And then at that point, the towels actually burst into flames,” Sweet said.

“The firefighters said it was about 10 minutes away from being a full kitchen fire,” Everett said.
Everett said the public needs to know about the potential for danger.

“I don't know if the plastic was burning because of the battery,” Everett said.

The tablets use lithium ion batteries.

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