WARNING, GRAPHIC IMAGES: A hissing sound turned into a nightmare for Gavin Sutherland after a vape battery suddenly exploded in his pocket, leaving him needing a skin graft

A man had to be airlifted to hospital after a vape battery “went off like a firework” in his pocket.

Gavin Sutherland, 40, first heard an ominous hiss and “slight movement” in his pocket before the blast suddenly seared his thigh as he was working at a jewellery workshop in Orkney.

A helicopter from Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) took Gavin to a hospital in Aberdeen. There, he needed skin graft work after the fabric of his boxer shorts melted onto the wound.

“I knew immediately it was something to do with the battery, but things happened so fast,” he said to the BBC. “There was a blast and a lot of heat, smoke and noise. I was running around in a panic, swearing, but didn’t know whether to use water or an extinguisher on it.”

Gavin ran to the door, causing the battery to roll to the ground after burning through his pocket. “I put some cold water on my thigh, but then the pain set in,” he said.

“The denim and the fabric of my boxer shorts had melted onto the wound, so I used a sharp knife to trim away the material and get a look at the wound. It was pretty sore and obviously needed medical attention.”

The pain was intense. After colleagues aided the placing of a burns pack on the wound, they drove him to Balfour Hospital in Kirkwall. Here, Gavin said he “basically collapsed” from the agony the incident caused.

“I thought I would just get some cream and a telling off, but it turned out to be a lot more serious than that,” he said.

Gavin was left with a wound the size of a finger, which was rinsed. The melted fabric then had to be picked away. “I could see the severity of the wound as they worked on it,” he said.

The wound was deemed serious enough to require treatment at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Gavin slept for much of the journey because of the morphine he had been given to numb the pain.

“I knew I was in safe hands,” Gavin said, praising the “personal” but professional nature of the crew, who even shared their sweets with him.

Gavin was left with permanent scarring after a skin graft operation. He escaped suffering muscle damage.

The experience Gavin had with the SCAA inspired his son Caleb, aged just nine, to do a sponsored cycle with a friend. They raised nearly £7,000.

Earlier this month, the Government was urged to crack down on cheap vapes circumventing single-use ban. Millions of vapes are still being binned one year after the Government banned single-use devices, councils and campaigners warned.

Shops and online retailers can only sell vapes that meet a set of reusable criteria after ministers introduced new rules a year ago on Monday as part of efforts to crackdown on their use among young people and environmental impacts.

But vape makers have since developed cheap, new styles that meet the legal requirements yet are sold, priced and used in the same way as the disposable models they replaced, meaning they essentially circumvent the ban.

The calls to Government come after research by campaign group Material Focus estimated that the number of vapes and pods thrown away each week before the ban was around 8.2 million.

While this had decreased over the last year, 6.3 million vapes and pods were still discarded in the last year, according to the group’s findings, which were calculated from polling carried out by Opinium.

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said: “We have taken decisive action to tackle the harm caused by disposable vapes by banning single-use products, mandating takeback schemes, and backing enforcement where the rules are not being followed.

“The results speak for themselves, fewer young people are using disposable vapes and we are turning the tide on a throwaway culture that damages our environment.

“We are committed to going further, supporting retailers to fulfil their legal obligation to provide vape recycling bins, holding those who fall short to account, and making it as easy as possible for people to do the right thing.”

Officials highlighted that they must legally review the ban, how it was being enforced, as well as any civil sanctions, within three years.