By ALANA MITCHELSON
A PAKENHAM couple woke up to a loud ‘bang’ in the middle of the night.
Ruth and Charles Tyler searched the house, but were unable to locate the source of their fright.
“We were fast asleep and suddenly there was this really loud noise. I thought someone was in the house – I thought it was the Apex gang breaking in!” Ms Tyler said.
“We looked around but couldn’t figure out what it could have been. It wasn’t until lunchtime when I noticed one of the cupboard doors in the kitchen was jammed and we found all these fragments of glass everywhere.”
Much to their bewilderment, the loud noise had been a Pyrex easy-grab baking dish “exploding into a thousand pieces” the night after Ms Tyler purchased it from Heritage Springs Coles on Thursday 28 July.
It is believed that a “rare” reaction sent shards of glass hurling in all directions throughout the kitchen cupboard and liquor cabinet shelves below.
Mr Tyler said that after calling Pyrex for an explanation, he was told that while such incidents were a rare occurrence, “it does happen”.
“It had just exploded into a thousand pieces overnight… by itself… for no reason. The cupboard was absolutely covered in the stuff,” he said.
“Pyrex said the reaction could have been caused for a number of reasons like maybe a box being dropped during transit.”
Ms Tyler said she had used Pyrex products her entire life and had never seen anything like this.
She recounted that after purchasing the dish she brought it home, gave it a wash and placed it in the cupboard. The dish had not yet been used for cooking.
“I’ve used Pyrex for years. I love it, and I’ve never had any problems. But this is a bit of a concern,” she said.
“It won’t stop me from buying Pyrex again, but I think people should be aware that even though it’s rare, this can happen. I’d hate to think it could happen to someone else.
“If it exploded while being used, your hands would be cut to bits. Glass would get all in your eyes. It’s dangerous.”
Pyrex’s parent company World Kitchen ANZ and South Pacific general manager Eva Caprile confirmed that incidents of glass breakage were “very rare”.
“At World Kitchen, the safety of our consumers is our highest priority. Pyrex glass products are and always have been durable, reliable and safe,” Ms Caprile said.
“All glass cookware is subject to breakage from either mechanical impact or thermal impact such as extreme temperature change. There has never been a recall of a World Kitchen Pyrex glassware product.
“We cannot speculate about the Pakenham incident referenced.”
The broken pieces have been sent to Pyrex headquarters for testing and analysis to identify the cause of the “breakage”.
Mr Tyler said Pyrex had agreed to replace the dish but joked that they might stick the replacement dish outside for a while first, “just in case”.
