Heres how to avoid lithium-ion battery fires as you shop this holiday season NBC 7 San Diego [Video]

Holiday shopping comes with more lithium-ion batteries and for some of them, it’s only a matter of time before they malfunction.

In February last year, a United Airlines passenger’s battery pack caught on fire.

“Probably ten minutes into the flight I started to smell something really bad and it just got worse and worse and it was clear that there was a lot of smoke,” said United passenger Anne Marie Buckland.

“The guy next to me, two seats over, started to scream,” said another passenger, Stephen Jones.

“The guy in first class said ‘oh god’ and put his shirt up over his face. Then I saw a flash of fire and then you see the flight attendants running back and forth with fire extinguishers.”

The fire forced an emergency landing.

Then two months later, a fire injured a man in Barrio Logan after he tried to put it out by pouring water on it, causing the battery to explode.

“These fires happen very …