ckcowl, that is so terrible, but it's a good thing you threw the iron out in the snow. Be thankful you figured out was it was before something terrible happened. I put my iron on a surge protector strip, just incase this would ever happen. I also attached a little light to it, and I turn them both on and off at the surge projector switch, this way, if I finished ironing, and forget to turn the iron off the light is one and it reminds me. I just started this a couple months ago, because I kept leaving the iron on, and didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night with a fire.