‘Where is my table?’: Toronto couple ‘shocked’ when glass table spontaneously shatters overnight

While glass furniture is generally considered safe - glass tables can occasionally self destruct for no apparent reason.

A Toronto couple says they were awoken in the middle of the night by a loud bang and when they went to investigate the noise, they saw their glass table had completely shattered.

“We were sleeping and all of a sudden, at 4:30 in the morning, we heard a huge bang downstairs and I’m thinking someone broke in,” said Sonia Rahman of Toronto.

Rahman said when she went to the living room with her husband, they were surprised to find their glass dining room table had shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.

“I’m looking down and I’m like, ‘Where is my table?’ To our shock, we find there is shattered glass all over the ground,” said Rahman.

Rahman said the table was about three years old, and there had been no issues with it.

At first, she said she was worried someone tried to break into their house.

“It was like a huge bang and my first thought was someone was trying to break in through the front door, maybe even gun shots outside. It was that loud,” said Rahman.

Glass can occasionally break without any obvious cause, according to a glass manufacturer, though when it does it could be due to edge or surface damage from handling and glazing that then weakens.

Usually, breakage occurs with tempered glass, which is supposed to be more durable compared to standard glass since it undergoes specialized thermal treatment to withstand stress.

Rahman said it took a while to clean up the mess and that, going forward, she won’t be buying glass furniture again. Outside of Rahman’s husband slipping and hitting his head due to the overnight commotion, she said nobody was cut from the glass shards.

“No, absolutely not. I have learnt my lesson, and I will be going back to traditional wood,” said Rahman.