For Michelle Carney, a late night spent painting turned into a devastating loss when a rechargeable battery for a yard trimmer exploded inside her Pelahatchie home, setting off a fire that destroyed much of what she had built.
Carney, a self-taught artist and small-business owner, had been painting late at night. After finishing her work and getting her pets settled for the night, she heard a loud boom that shook the house.
When she went to investigate, she found the battery she had been charging in another room had exploded.
"I went in there, and I saw the battery sitting there, and it was like it was glowing blue," Carney said. "Stuff was shooting out from it all over the room, and everywhere one of the blue streaks landed it caught on fire."
Carney grabbed fire extinguishers and began fighting the flames. She emptied at least four, but the fire continued to burn.
The batteries used in many rechargeable yard tools can pose a particular challenge when they fail. Fires involving lithium-ion batteries can reignite because the battery can continue undergoing a chemical reaction even after the visible flames have been extinguished.
For Carney, the fire meant losing far more than a place to live.
She operated a side business from her home, creating and selling handmade artwork and decorative items through her Etsy shop, "ScarlettButterfly81." Her work included gourd birdhouses, glass bottle lights, solar jar lanterns, paintings and other handcrafted pieces.
Much of her inventory was stored inside the home.
"I probably had 20 or 30 gourds finished in there, and listed them on Etsy shop, and about 50 Mason Jars, and they're just all shattered and crushed in the hall in there," Carney said.
The fire also took an even more painful toll.
Carney was able to rescue her dog, Biscuit, from the house, but her cats were still missing. One of them, Angel, remains unaccounted for. Angel's sister, Tinkerbell, was later found hiding inside the house but did not survive.
Carney said the cats were more than pets. They had become part of her family after someone abandoned a pregnant cat near her home.
"Someone threw a pregnant cat out here, and I kept them and found homes for all of the other ones, and they were my children," Carney said. "They've been my babies since they were born."
The home itself also held deep personal significance. It had been built years ago by Carney's parents.
In the aftermath of the fire, Carney is facing the loss of her home, her business inventory and a beloved pet, along with the memories attached to the house.
She knows the material things can eventually be replaced.
Her pets cannot.
Carney hopes to return to creating and selling her artwork once she has had time to recover from the fire and begin rebuilding.
In the meantime, she wants others who use rechargeable battery-powered yard equipment to learn from what happened to her.
Carney encourages people to charge batteries for lawn and yard equipment outside the home, away from living areas and other flammable materials.
"It could be one out of a billion batteries that blow up," Carney said, "but you never want to find out you're the one."
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