NAPLES, Fla. - No one was sitting at Yvonne Rowtie's patio table. No one was even in her backyard. But what happened to her table is actually very common and could happen to yours too!

Shards of glass still litter Yvonne Rowtie's patio.

"You can see still there's some shiny pieces on the ground. Tiny pieces," Rowtie told CALL FOR ACTION.

She's even still vacuuming up pieces from her pool two weeks after her patio table exploded.

"I was just out here sitting in this chair reading a book then I got up to do some dishes and suddenly I heard this explosion," said Rowtie, "I was so scared. I didn't move for like two seconds, three seconds because I was afraid someone was breaking into the house."

Turns out, the glass on her Martha Stewart patio table spontaneously exploded.

"Glass was everywhere. Glass was even in the pool. I mean it was really, really, scary," said Rowtie.

She tried to take the table back to K-Mart.

"I talked to the manager, I said 'just tell me honestly, please, have you ever heard anything about these tables exploding?' And he says no they've never had a complaint,"

Yvonne took her search to the Internet and found hundreds of complaints about the Martha Stewart patio table exploding. There was even a class action lawsuit against Martha Stewart and the manufacturer. It was dismissed by a federal judge without prejudice, meaning it could be filed again.

But the problem isn't isolated to Martha Stewart patio furniture. The problem may be the glass used in patio tables.

Manufacturers use what's called tempered glass. It's glass sent through the oven at a high temperature so making it more durable in the center.

"It can take a good shock," said George Ream Buysse, owner of Fort Myers Glass and Mirror.

He says manufacturers like tempered glass because of its strength and that it breaks into small pieces making it safer than regular glass.

"Yeah, you'll get cut, you'll get peppered up a little bit but you won't get the long scars with numerous hundreds of stitches," said Buysse comparing tempered glass which breaks into small pieces, to regular glass which breaks into large sharp pieces.

He says tempered glass has it's weaknesses.

"Tempered glass is very strong in the center. But if you took an exposed edge and just sat it down like on a tile floor or a concrete floor just touching it with just a few pounds of pressure causes the whole thing to blow up," said Buysse.

He showed us how by using a hammer to pound on the middle of the glass. It didn't break. Then he lightly tapped the outside edge. The whole piece shattered in an instance.

So, if the delicate edges of that glass rub against the metal on the table, it will explode into little pieces.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has received more than 350 complaints about spontaneously exploding patio tables. Many complained of cuts to their legs, or their children's legs. Even with all of those complaints, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has not conducted any investigation or issued any recalls.

George attributes the rise in table explosions to the rise in products purchased from overseas.

"The glass made there just doesn't seem to be the same quality we have in America. So, I think the incidents of glass blowing up is a lot higher," said Buysse.

Yvonne thinks the tables should come with a warning, "I just want people to be aware that these tables might explode."

If this has happened to you, you can file a complaint with the CPSC.

http://www.cpsc.gov/talk.html