Dishwashers are dangerous!

Today I turned on the dishwasher, dropped off the kids to daycare, and then ran some errands. When I got home, there was this terrible rancid burning metal/plastic/corn-like smell. I followed my nose and searched everywhere for the culprit and found that it was my dishwasher.

I opened it, and didn't see anything straight away so I emptied it out and saw at the bottom near the metal heating rod, there was a burnt plastic spatula cut in half since the rod melted it. It stunk up the whole house, so I had to open all the windows and doors, then run the machine on maybe 3 times, to get the burnt plastic smell out.

Imagine what could have happened!? My whole house could have burned while I was out. I will always check for fallen utensils now...geez...SO DANGEROUS! They should make more safety precautions, or maybe I just have a really old dishwasher. It's from '92.