Insurer sues Philips over $2.4M school fire blamed on speaker

The story, as Utica National tells it, is a familiar one for anyone who has been watching lithium-ion battery risk climb up the industry’s worry list. According to the filing, a teacher at the school had bought a Philips X7207 Wireless Bluetooth Cube Speaker sometime before November 15, 2024. On or around that date, the insurer alleges, the speaker and its lithium-ion battery system failed, the cells went into failure, and a fire ignited at the school property on Ontario Road. The damage, the insurer says, was substantial.