WHAT is on FIRE?!

So it's the last day of school for MiniMe and one of her friends came home with her today.
Here's the spillage by my front door that says "one extra kid after school".


They decided to do their hair and makeup and split to another friend's place for an impromptu pizza/video game party.
Anyhow, so they leave and I'm minding my own business surfing the net and doing laundry. All of the sudden I get a whiff of something that smells like it's kind of hot...sort of like a distant cheap candle. Then it got stronger, FAST.
I bolted out of the room and ran straight to Mini's room where I was nearly 90% certain I'd find a hair straightener plugged in and laying on the carpet or the bed.
Nerp.
The farther I back-tracked, I realized it was super strong the closer I got to the kitchen/dining room and the only two things that were running were a spankin' new dishwasher and a twenty-two year old dryer. I thought for sure the dryer was on fire.
That smell was the smell of hot wires burning.
I felt the door...no heat.
Opened it...no smell.
What...The...?!
I went to the dishwasher, which was running the "dry" cycle and I felt the front.
No hotter than "normal"...so I popped the latch and cracked the door.
I got hit with a lung-full of the most acrid stinky smoke (not steam...SMOKE) that I've ever smelled since a hairdryer caught on fire once when I was about 17. I REMEMBER that smell.
Anyhow...
INSIDE the washer, a little plastic lid had come unsecured and slipped through the top rack, through the bottom rack, and landed right smack on the heating element coil thingy.
Yargh!!
I reached in to pluck it off fast and the plastic got stringy like cheese.
The bottom rack rolled and bumped my hand and my thumb and index finger sizzled on that stupid thing right along with the lid.
Ouch.