Danger of Flying Glass

A couple of weeks ago we had a neighbor for the Friday night Shabbat meal.  She commented that she no longer uses the glass holders we use, because one of hers exploded.

"Nothing like that ever happened to me," I responded.

On Shabbat, as happens on occasion, two of the candles stopped burning, so I lit them later in the week.  One was very stubborn and it took a few matches to get it burning again.  And of course pieces of matches stayed burning with the candle.

You can see the pictures so you're not surprised that suddenly one of the glass cups broke very loudly.

Nobody was sitting there or nearby, and we don't have little kids or dogs or cats crawling around, so thank G-d nobody was injured.  It was a weekday and I was home alone.  It could have been the burning flame from the match that caused it, but I have dropped matches in before without any problems.  Or after years of use the glass weakened and cracked, but too fine for me to notice.

I had trouble with exploding glass cups a number of years ago on Chanukah when I used to use oil over water.  I stopped that and only burn the oil without raising the level with water.