Man Claims Nintendo Wii Burned Down his RV

A Colorado Springs resident has suffered a devastating fire caused by his Nintendo Wii. Trevor Pellegrin had turned off his Wii and headed out only to return when neighbours called him about the fire. Firefighters have largely rules out all other sources of ignition and believe the Wii was the source of the fire.

Pellegrin had used the Wii earlier in the week for Netflix but had turned it off afterwards. Unlike some cases where electronics were covered up and overheated, that did not seem to be the case here. It is also uncertain if the ignition source came from within the Wii itself or was the power adapter. Shoddy power adapters can be the source of fires as they can fail to properly regulate power. Being in a RV could also have been a contributing issue as the power going into the console might not be the cleanest.

If the source was from the Wii or its power supply even when the console is off, it does raise concerns about the safety of always-on devices. Many electronics these days actually aren’t off when the user turns them “off”. This can lead to issues where the user then might not follow all the safety procedures as they believe the device to be unpowered. However, it’s important to note that consoles haven’t been much of a source of fires recently, as the lithium-ion batteries in mobile devices are more prone to fires.

Image Courtesy of 11News