Niverville family says glass table 'exploded' in their home

A Manitoba family's morning started with a bang today, after their glass-top table suddenly shattered in their dining room.

Chantal Ruchkall says she and her husband woke up to a loud gunshot-like sound on Friday.

"I ran to the kitchen and … our table was completely, I don't know, exploded or disassembled," she told CBC News.

"I right away looked around for kids because I thought, 'Oh my gosh, did one of the kids do something,' you know? But there was nobody around, everything was closed up in the house … this had just exploded."

The middle of the table appears to have disintegrated. Tempered glass shards of various sizes are scattered on the floor in the dining, kitchen and living room areas.

Ruchkall said nobody was hurt, but the shattered glass pieces have made the entire kitchen off-limits for now. She's now trying to figure out how to clean up the mess.

"I'm very nervous about a glass table again. I don't really want to have a product like that in my house," she said.

The family had purchased the table from a Winnipeg furniture store about a year ago.

An official with Structube, the company that sold the Ruchkalls the table, apologized in an email and said it's looking into what happened.

She said she is speaking out to warn other people who own glass-top tables.

"I would be concerned, honest to goodness, if anyone has this," she said, pointing to the table.

"I'm just thankful no one was hurt for us, but I would not want anyone near that if that happened."

Ruchkall said she's concerned that even after the pieces of broken glass are picked up, small shards may remain stuck in the grooves on their wood floor, posing a safety hazard for the family.

Niverville is located 45 kilometres south of Winnipeg.

There have been several reports over the years of glass tables "exploding."

• Ikea customer upset by shattered glass
• More worry about exploding glass tables

In 2012, an Ottawa woman said the tempered glass top of an Ikea chest of drawers in her bedroom shattered in the middle of the night.

At the time, an Ikea spokesperson said the glass must have sustained some kind of damage that would cause it to explode.

Randall Lambkin, a glass installer at Fort Rouge Glass in Winnipeg, says a number of factors could lead to tempered glass shattering.

"There's many different things that can cause it — sometimes glass underneath it or beside it, a pinpoint will do it. Sometimes glass is just glass and it just breaks," he said.

Lambkin said it's rare for tempered glass to spontaneously shatter.