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"I just heard this explosive sound, and I saw flashes out of the corner of my eye," said Welch.
The shattered pieces could be seen throughout his small apartment. "Glass crowded up against the refrigerator, crowded up against the wall," he said. "It spontaneously exploded."
We took Adam's photos and story to glass expert, Justin Ivy. Ivy works at Seattle Stained Glass, and he has heard of glass exploding before.
"It's not terribly common, but it can happen," said Ivy.
Ivy said if the glass has been damaged in the past, like a "deep scratch, a chip on the edge" that could cause problems. He said, "a hot pan, a bright sunny day, things like that, can cause thermal stress, and cause it to break.
It can release that tension in the glass and cause it to just explode."
Ivy emphasized, that while he's heard of this happening, it is rare.
People have posted pictures and stories, similar to Adam's story, online.
That is where you can find years worth of complaints about glass tables exploding.
For Adam, he said it is still unclear what caused his table to explode.
"It is a total mystery. There is nothing I can think of that would have been the foundation of this explosion," said Welch.
Adam owned the table for four years. He contacted the furniture manufacturer, and is still awaiting a reply.
...the physical stresses that can be "frozen" into a piece of glass.
In the photo it looks like the sun was shining in. That could have been enough.
This has even happened to windows on occasion. It comes from little flaws in the glass-making process.