Really bizarre incident with AA battery...

[Jolt]

I was at work last night (covering a nursing shift at a nursing home) and the following crazy incident happened. I went into one resident's room to give her her pills, and she showed me her TV remote with only one of the batteries in it, and it was partway out, and it was HOT--so hot it was melting the plastic of the remote!! She said she had tried to get it out but it was too hot (fortunately she didn't appear to have burned her fingers), and handed it to me. I grabbed a big wad of TP from the bathroom and used that to pull out the battery without burning my fingers; the battery was making some weird fizzing sounds which made me drop it (well, sort of throw it) on the floor. Then I thought, this sounds like it's going to explode, so I threw a towel on top of it to contain it if that happened but then realized that was probably a fire hazard given how hot the battery was. Fortunately this building had windows that could be opened, so I opened the window and tossed out the battery into an area covered with gravel. Is that the weirdest thing, or what?

[Biciclista]

did you get a Jolt from it? (sorry I couldn't resist)

That IS strange, glad no one was hurt.

[Roadtrip]

I once bumped a CFL bulb in the basement while carrying boxes in (low ceiling) and it suddenly started growing brighter and brighter... and BRIGHTER.. At first I'm like OK.. that can't be good. I know they contain lead or some other nasty particles. It kept growing brighter and I was afraid it would explode, much like the battery, but I finally managed to reach in and pull the chain to turn it off. It was VERY hot to the touch so I grabbed a towel and took the bulb out and set it on the concrete to cool before I pitched it.

Shannon

[lph]

battery - sounds like an acid leak. I've had bulbs explode on me too, scary.

[OakLeaf]

yikes.

Household batteries are alkaline. I've had plenty of batteries leak over the years, but nothing like that ... I wonder if maybe someone put it in with the polarity reversed??

[Jolt]

yikes.

Household batteries are alkaline. I've had plenty of batteries leak over the years, but nothing like that ... I wonder if maybe someone put it in with the polarity reversed??

I think she did actually have it in with the polarity reversed...not entirely sure as that's not really what I was paying attention to at the time but I think it was in backwards. Yikes is right! To answer Mimi's question, there was no shocking experience involved .

[Possegal]

One of the morning shows just had a thing on batteries and I admit I was only half listening, but I heard him say something about if changing change both because if you put in a new battery with an old one that it can cause one of them to get hot and even explode/catch on fire.

Here is a link, since I probably didn't catch it all right.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?...ewsVideoArea.0