Photos: Man suffers third degree burns after e-cigarette battery explodes in his pocket

Terrence Johnson, a 32yr old man from Canada suffered third degree burns after an e-cigarette battery exploded in his pocket. Dramatic footage shows him standing with his wife Rachel Rex in front of their favorite restaurant when the device suddenly erupted in in a cloud of sparks and smoke while he frantically tries to put out the fire.

The heat was so intense that Johnson will require a skin graft to treat the third-degree burn on his thigh. He also suffered first-and-second-degree burns on his hands during the incident on Friday.

His wife Rex said:

'All of a sudden there were flames everywhere. I actually thought someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at us.'  

'We had heard about the actual devices exploding but never knew the risk of the batteries. We keep thinking thank god one of our kids wasn’t standing next to him and we want to warn people'.

The e-cigarette battery burned through Johnson's pants and polyester boxer-briefs, melting the material to his skin and he is unable to return to work due to his injuries. Johnson says he's been using e-cigs for years but was unaware of the dangers and because of the incident, he is ditching smoking.

'The e-cigarette did its job, and I was able to quit tobacco cigarettes, but this is scary enough that I will not touch another e-cigarette', he said.

Surgeons and firemen have warned about the dangers of e-cigarettes after treating a string of smokers injured by exploding devices.