Fire involving tablets may have started with hot towels, not batteries

New information has come to light about a report of computer tablets catching fire in Waukesha.

Days after Karlie Everett said her dad bought several RCA tablets for his employees, she said a fire started inside the box.

VIDEO: RCA investigates Waukesha tablet fire

"I kicked the box and a bunch of ash came out," she said.

The odor made them sick, and fire officials said the house could have caught fire if it wasn't spotted in time.

The Waukesha fire marshal said a representative from RCA flew in from New York to help investigate the incident.

Alco Electronics makes the tablets. Company representative Mario Boltri said the report of this type of incident is a first.

"We have sold literally millions of tablets. Millions. We have never had a single problem involving a fire or anything involving the battery," he said.

Boltri said he inspected the tablets involved in the fire and found that they all powered up without issue.

Boltri, along with the fire marshal, suspect the tablets did not cause the fire. Investigators said hot towels taken from a clothes dryer were placed in the same box as the tablets, and may have contributed to spontaneous combustion.

"Before coming here, the engineer spoke with me and said 'I'm looking at the pictures, they're from the outside in,'" Boltri said of the fire damage. "If it were a tablet, you would find this thing going pop."

"Towels starting a fire seems crazy," Everett said.

RCA brought the family several replacement tablets as a good faith gesture.

The Fire Department has ruled the cause of the fire "undetermined."

Source: Fire involving tablets may have started with hot towels, not batteries