Orange resident Joseph Cavins, 63, took up smoking electronic cigarettes two years ago to help kick his long-time chewing tobacco habit.

He was smoking an e-cigarette at his computer desk on the night of April 15 when he suddenly heard a loud crack.

“It felt like a metal baseball bat had hit the side of my face,” he said.

The cigarette had exploded, ricocheting off Cavins’ left eye and landing on a bookshelf, where it started a fire, he said.

Cavins’ wife, Pat, helped him put out the fire and rushed him to the hospital. Doctors said the device hit his face with such force it cracked his eye socket and sinus bones and left shrapnel embedded in his eyeball, he said, and they couldn’t save his left eye.

E-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that turn nicotine into a vapor, have grown in popularly in recent years, trumpeted as a safer alternative to tobacco. But the lithium-ion battery used to power the device apparently can explode, causing severe burns on rare occasions.

In January, a 19-year-old man in Ladera Ranch was burned when two e-cigarette batteries blew up in his pocket, authorities said.

In March 2015, a 29-year-old Santa Ana man was smoking in his bedroom when the device exploded, authorities said, sending shrapnel into a hand and setting part of his bedroom on fire.

Such cases have resulted in a barrage of lawsuits against e-cigarette companies.

On Thursday, Cavins filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against several e-cigarette manufacturers and sellers, including two in Orange County – Vape It Up and The Vapor Loft.

The Vapor Loft declined comment. A representative of Vape It Up could not be reached for comment.

Cavins’ attorney, Gregory Bentley, said he has filed 60 such lawsuits throughout California, including a handful in Orange County.

Bentley recently represented Jennifer Ries of Corona, who was burned in 2013 when an e-cigarette exploded in her car and spewed hot metal onto her dress. A Riverside County jury in October awarded her $1.9 million.

“E-cigarettes are randomly exploding in peoples’ faces and pockets,” Bentley said.

Dr. Victor Joe, head medical director of the UC Irvine Health Regional Burn Center, said lithium-ion batteries can be dangerous when subjected to extreme temperatures.

Joe said the center has treated 14 e-cigarette burn victims since November. In most case, the devices became overheated and exploded in the person’s pants pocket, he said.

“We’re telling people to only use the charger that came with the device and use it correctly,” he said. “Do not let the batteries get too warm.”

Cavins said he is recovering and now wears an eye patch. He recently returned to work as a therapist for special-education students and said the children have been supportive.

He plans to get a prosthetic eye this summer, after he heals.