B.C. family says their glass bathroom sink spontaneously 'exploded'

A Vernon, B.C. family's day started off with a bang when their tempered glass sink spontaneously shattered into hundreds of pieces, according to homeowner Bill Hartford.

Hartford said he bought the green tinted, glass vessel basin from a hardware store two years ago.

The sink was installed in the family's bathroom and had worked without issue until last week.

Then the sink suddenly "exploded" into shards of glass, he said.

"[It] sounded like a loud gunshot. Literally shards of glass were all through the kitchen, down the hallway [and] littered the bathroom,' said Hartford.

"It was quite the sight. I haven't seen so much glass everywhere."

Nothing fell on the sink to cause it to shatter, according to Hartford, and no one was in the bathroom at the time.

"Definitely somebody would have got injured," he said.

"There were really fine shards of glass...embedded in the tile grout and we are still picking it out today."

The sink was manufactured in China and imported into Canada by Valley Acrylic in Mission, B.C, according to Ravi Beech, the marketing and business development director.

This is the first time the company has heard of one of the vessel glass sinks shattering in this manner, she said.

"We were very, very surprised," she said. 

"This just has never been reported to us before."

Tempered glass is designed to break into small pieces so that if a product does break there is less chance of injury, said Beech.

Beech said the sink could have been under strain if it was over-tightened during installation and that might have caused it to suddenly shatter.

"Or if something hit the sink, like a sharp object with a certain velocity hits the sink, it will crack and it will shatter. That's just how tempered glass is," Beech said.

Multiple reports in the U.S.

A spokesperson with the Consumer Product Safety branch of Health Canada told CBC News the agency has not received reports of glass vessel sinks shattering in this manner.

There are multiple reports in the U.S of glass sinks exploding, including consumers documenting the damage in YouTube videos.

As for Hartford, the store he purchased the sink from has refunded his money.

He's says he's going to buy another glass sink despite the mystery surrounding his first one's explosive end.

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