Man, we lucked out.

The dryer is still under warranty.

The inside wall was still hot fifteen minutes later but the outside wall was nice and cool.

I had walked in the door after running an errand this afternoon and instead of doing what I’d planned to, had gone straight to the laundry room to see if the load was done. Good thing. When I got to the end of the hall, something was smelling a little funny but I couldn’t find the source nor figure it out. Sticking my head inside the dryer, it just smelled like regular old clean sheets in there. Huh. I walked back across the house to tell Richard.

Within maybe two minutes we all could smell it all over the house but we knew what room it was coming from because I’d just announced it and this time Michelle found a slight browning of the wall rising above the plug and I found the blackened prong.

That was so close. So close.