A Singaporean woman shared on her Facebook how her tempered glass table top exploded into pieces while she was having steamboat with her friends.
Here’s what the table looks like:
Chu and her friends were about 30 minutes into dinner when the table “EXPLODED and the entire tempered glass top shattered into pieces.”
Now, one can already imagine how dangerous it is to have a hotpot spill over due to the boiling hot soup, but Chu said this was 10 times the damage as there were small pieces of glass everywhere.
Chu and her friends suffered injuries, with some having second degree burns and some having deep cuts in their feet.
“After the incident happened, all of us sat there in shock, and we couldn’t do anything as there were glass shards and hot soup everywhere,” she said.
“We immediately called the ambulance and paramedics came down to rescue us.”
“With all my guests injured, some with cuts bigger than the size of an eye. I myself was brought to NTF for treatment of 2nd degree burns.”
Chu then shares that she is aware of the possibility that thermal stress can occur on tempered glass, causing it to shatter like it did for her table, despite the tabletop being “tough with 15mm of thickness”.
“With no right or wrong answer to how much heat and duration will cause a tempered glass from shattering, we were unfortunate enough to experience this traumatic experience.”
Indeed, “glass cookware made with heat-strengthened or tempered glass can unexpectedly shatter due to thermal stress resulting from temperature changes during reportedly normal use,” according to Conservation, and this probably applies to glass table tops as well.
After the incident, Chu contacted the furniture company for compensation and asked them to take some responsibility to cover medical bills and repair costs, but they were only willing to give her a laminated tabletop as a replacement.
“We shifted into our brand new home, with brand new furniture for the entire house, all ready to celebrate our first CNY at our new house,” Chu said.
“Instead, my husband and I were left speechless with all the mess left behind. When I came home from NTF last night, I broke down and cried when we opened the door. My house is in a mess and it smells like a crime scene of a murder.”
“But well……. thankfully it was not during the actual CNY, where elderlies and babies/children could have been severely injured.”
Chu now warns tempered glass tabletop owners of the dangers that can happen. She also shared the damage that took place during the incident:
Damage occurred:
1. New kitchenware
2. Lots of injuries (blood spilt everywhere)
3. A&E medical attention + follow-up appointments
4. Blood stain on wall and sofa
5. Blood seeping into grout (have to dig out and reapply grout as there is no way to clean it)
6. Food
This is such a horrible thing that can happen to anyone! It is advisable to use coasters on glass table tops when you’re placing a hot dish on top as it helps to prevent scratches and protects the table from the heat.
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