Thanks all who replied. I ended up investigating some more and noted that the wires inside the nut that melted were barely connected. I checked the elements resistance in the water heater and visually checked the electrical wire going to the breaker box. Everything looks clean with no indication of an issue besides that wire nut. I’m concluding it was a loose connection and hoping that is right. I redid the connection and installed a fire alarm right above the water heater. I then let the water completely warm up and checked the wires (after turning off power) to make sure they were not hot. So far it is all working as expected.

I’m confused if this is a plumbing or electrical thing. Would the short be in the water heater or in the wire before it?

Same here. If I go to a house with a football game or tv show blasting, the next day I see news related to this. It is not something I have googled.

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That makes more sense. Thanks

If the glaciers are melting so fast how can things get buried for that long?

I too am curious about this. Does each instance have its own copy of the data from the other instances? How does it stay in sync?