I had an older iron I loved, and the thermostat went out (I think due to falling off the iron) so it super heated and that unlimited draw on electricity damaged the cord and it started to melt in places. I will say that between the time it was malfunctioning and the cord went, I loved having a super hot iron! Though I did accidentally melt some older poly/nylon thread and super shrink up some poly/cotton fabric.
I have been keeping my iron plugged into the same power strip that controls my track lighting in the sewing room, so I know if those lights are off, so is the iron. My current iron does have a long shutoff time, however I have reason to believe it's not working and the iron never shuts off on it's own. I never turn it on or off, just use the power strip to control it. The power strip is mounted to the wall right under the ironing board, so it can't get stepped on by the cats and turned on accidentally. If we are going out of town, I unplug the power strip from the wall.