INIU Battery Fire: What the Recall Says and What It Means If You Were Hurt

What the CPSC Recall of INIU Power Banks Says

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published the notice titled "INIU Recalls Power Banks Due to Fire and Burn Hazards; Sold on Amazon". It gives a recall date of December 5, 2025, and recall number 26-135. A recall is a public corrective action for a product. Usually it is announced with a federal agency, and it tells owners about a hazard and the remedy available.

According to the CPSC notice, "The lithium-ion battery in the recalled power banks can overheat and ignite, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers." The notice lists the units as "About 210,000." It names the remedy as a refund. It states that consumers "should stop using the recalled power banks immediately and visit INIU's recall page" to verify the serial number and register for a full refund.

The notice also reports what the company had heard. It states that INIU "has received 15 reports of power banks overheating, including 11 reports of fires that resulted in three minor burn injuries and property damage." The CPSC notice states that the power banks were sold online at Amazon.com from August 2021 and April 2022.

This record matters if you own one of these power banks or were hurt near one. It is a public document that identifies a product, a hazard and a remedy. Read carefully, though, it is also limited. A recall is not a finding that any particular power bank injured anyone. It does not decide that INIU or anyone else is legally responsible. The reports the notice describes are reports to the company. They do not establish what caused any one fire.

About INIU and the Products Covered

The CPSC notice lists INIU, of Seattle, Washington, as the retailer. It lists Shenzhen Topstar Industry Co., Ltd., of China, as the manufacturer, and it gives China as the place of manufacture. This page describes INIU only as that notice does. It makes no statement about the company's practices or quality beyond the record.

The product named in the notice is "INIU BI-B41 Power Banks." The notice describes them as "INIU 10,000mAh portable power banks, model BI-B41." A portable power bank is a pocket-sized rechargeable battery pack used to charge a phone or other device away from an outlet.

The notice gives several ways to recognize a covered unit:

• The case is black or blue, with the INIU logo and a paw-print LED light on the front.
• The model and serial number are printed at the bottom on the back.
• Only units with serial numbers 000G21, 000H21, 000I21 and 000L21 are included.

That last point is the one that sorts most questions. An INIU power bank with a different model or serial number is not part of this recall as the notice describes it. That fact by itself says nothing about whether that other device is safe or unsafe. The reverse is also true. A matching serial number does not show that a particular device caused a particular fire.

If a device burned badly, the printed serial number may be hard to read. Then the receipt, order history and photos taken before the damage often become the way to tie the device to a model. The site covers other brands' recall records in the same way, such as Anker battery recall information. Each page covers only its own official notices.

How a Lithium-Ion Battery Can Overheat or Catch Fire

This section describes lithium-ion batteries as a type. It is not a statement about the INIU BI-B41 or about what happened in any incident.

A lithium-ion cell stores a lot of energy in a small space. The main way it fails dangerously is thermal runaway. That is a self-reinforcing cycle of heat inside a cell: heat speeds up chemical reactions, those reactions make more heat, and the cycle can lead to fire or explosion. Once it starts, it can spread from one cell to the next inside a pack.

Most power banks rely on a battery management system to keep cells in a safe range. A battery management system is the electronic circuit that monitors and controls charging, discharging and temperature. When that circuit works, it can cut power before a cell is overcharged or overheated. When it fails, that protective layer is gone.

Product law groups failures like these into three kinds of defect:

• A design defect is a problem in the plan for the product itself. The product is made exactly as intended, but the design creates the risk.
• A manufacturing defect means a particular unit came out different from its design, for example through a production error.
• A failure-to-warn defect, also called a warning defect, means the labels or instructions did not adequately address a risk the product carried.

Federal rules reflect the same ideas. Under 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4, a CPSC regulation, a defect is "a fault, flaw, or irregularity that causes weakness, failure, or inadequacy in form or function." It may come from a manufacturing or production error, from the design or materials, or from a product's "contents, construction, finish, packaging, warnings, and/or instructions."

If you are trying to understand what happened to your device, these categories give you a vocabulary, not an answer. A fire or explosion does not by itself show what caused it, or who, if anyone, is responsible. Charging equipment, physical damage, heat exposure and the condition of the cells can all bear on that question. Answering it for a specific device is a factual matter for investigation.

Why the Recall Matters If You Were Hurt or Your Property Was Damaged

Federal law sets the frame for recalls like this one. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064, a "substantial product hazard" includes a product defect that creates a substantial risk of injury to the public. The statute considers the pattern of defect, the number of products, the severity of the risk, or other factors. Manufacturers, distributors and retailers that obtain information reasonably supporting such a conclusion must inform the Commission. There is an exception when they know the Commission has already been adequately informed. After an opportunity for a hearing, the Commission may also order public notice, repair, replacement or a refund. The same section lists what a recall notice generally includes, among other items: the model or SKU number, the number of units, the hazard, the dates of manufacture and sale, injuries reported, and the remedy.

None of that is a court judgment. Product liability is the area of law that addresses claims arising from injuries caused by a product. It is mostly state law, and it asks its own questions. In general, a product claim requires showing three things: that the product had a defect in design, manufacturing or warnings; that the defect caused the injury; and that the injury led to damages. Some claims are instead framed as negligence, which asks about a duty of care, a breach of that duty, causation and damages.

For someone who was burned, or whose home or car was damaged, the recall can be relevant. It is a public record that describes a hazard in a defined group of units. Still, it does not establish that the hazard caused a specific injury, and it does not decide liability. Whether those elements are met depends on the facts: which device it was, how it was being used, what the physical evidence shows, and what the medical records document. This page does not assess anyone's claim.

The damages the law may allow differ by state. Common categories include medical expenses, lost earnings, pain and suffering, and property loss. A wrongful death claim is the claim certain family members may bring when a person dies because of another's wrongful act or a defective product. States define who may bring that claim and what it covers.

A conversation with our attorney can help you understand how these standards apply to what happened. It can cover the device, the incident, the injuries and the records.

What Records and Information Often Matter in Battery Injury Cases

Records matter because each one answers part of the framework above. Some show the injury. Some identify the product. Some help reconstruct the event. If you were hurt, the records that usually matter include:

• Medical records documenting the injuries and the treatment. These connect the event to the harm.
• The product itself, its packaging and any accessories, such as cables or chargers. The physical device is often the main evidence of what failed.
• Proof of purchase, like a receipt, order confirmation or order history. These can link a device to a model and a sale period.
• Photos and video of the product, the fire, the damage and the injuries. Images can capture conditions that change over time.
• Incident reports, fire department reports or police reports, if any were made.
• Names and contact details of anyone who saw the fire or its aftermath.

The CPSC notice includes its own guidance about recalled batteries. It states that recalled lithium-ion batteries "present a greater risk of fire" and "must be disposed of differently than other batteries." It also says a municipal household hazardous waste center may accept them. Families who still hold a damaged device are often weighing that safety guidance alongside its value as evidence. What people gather, and how a device is stored, can affect what is available later on.

Gathering these records can feel like one more burden on top of treatment and recovery. A case review request can open a conversation about which records exist and how they fit together.

Filing Deadlines and Why They Differ by State

A statute of limitations is the period within which a lawsuit must be filed. Once it ends, the right to sue is generally lost. For product injury claims, that period is set by state law, and it differs from state to state. No single deadline applies nationwide. Some states also have rules that change when the period starts or pause it in certain situations. Missing the applicable deadline can bar a claim entirely.

Deadlines are not the only rules that vary. States differ on fault. Under comparative fault rules, a recovery may be reduced by a person's own share of fault. A few contributory fault rules can bar recovery altogether. States differ on damages too, including whether any category is capped, and on who may bring a wrongful-death claim and within what time. For one state's rules after a battery fire, the site has a page on California lithium battery injury law. Those rules are California's alone.

For a family dealing with burns or a house fire, the state where the incident happened usually shapes everything that follows. A conversation with our attorney can cover where and when the fire occurred, so the deadline under that state's law can be identified.