TikTok Video Challenge is Causing Fires

Fire officials have issued a warning about an alarming new trend on the social media site.

According to News 10, the latest dangerous viral video challenge on the video app TikTok could be extremely dangerous and cause serious damage. The warning comes from the state of Massachusetts but I do think that we can all take the warning into account here in the Hudson Valley.

The challenge has high school students using a penny, a charger, and an outlet. From what we have seen, the students plug in the cell phone charger into a wall outlet and then drop a penny behind it, the reaction causes the outlet to short out and in some reported cases, start a fire.

Plymouth Fire Department Chief Ed Bradley told News 10 that once the reaction happens, “The electricity propels the charger and the coin, molten metal at this point, outward, it could easily get you in the face, in the eye, cause blindness or your clothing to catch on fire."

Firefighters are asking parents to talk with their children that use these type of social media apps about the real life risks of trying to recreate anything they see on these types of videos as something like this could potentially be deadly and cause a fire in the wall that goes undetected until it’s too late.

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