Home repair then fire department

We had an plans for an efficient and productive night but instead the dishwasher started pouring water out from the bottom, all over the floor. I am the type who just mops it up with a beach towel and lets it finish it's run. Which involved another wet beach towel. I didn't want to have dirty dishes to clean! Rob came in from painting the trim outside (an overdue and unpleasant task) and was horrified to find water spewing out of our appliance.

After putting away the cleanish dishes, we assessed that the water was backing up in the bottom of the washer. We are usually timid about home repair, but we're low on cash so I googled "dishwasher leaking" and we got a nice website where someone told us step by step how to evaluate and treat our problem.
Exciting.
Rob was chugging away, taking apart hoses and using a coat hanger to unclog them. He got a big gush of water and figured he'd cleared the blockage. Hooray!

We were feeling successful and powerful. Like Handy Manny, "We can fix it!"

Then he dropped a screw in the motor!
Uggh. We spent the next hour, the kids wasting away in front of the tele and all of us growing hungry as dinner time passed. Rob or I would be soo close to grabbing the tiny screw with tweezers, flashlight trembling and back killing, and then we would drop the screw again.
Ackkkkk!
We had lots of ideas about how to get it out, finally after using the leaf blower to blow out the dingy water that blocked our view of the screw, (Rob's idea) I leaned in with pliers holding a strong magnet (we'd ripped from a lovely butterfly magnet of the fridge) and out came the screw.

Elation!
Hooray!
We were victorious.
We put some dirty dishes in the dishwasher and fired it up.
No leaking.
We were proud.
Then Rob called to me, "I see smoke, Kat! It's smoking!"
"Oh no that's just steam!" I called confidently from the other room.
Then I smelled the smoke.

What to do!
It was streaming out of the side of the dishwasher.
I called 911.
They were very polite and prompt.
I told the dispatcher that Rob was going to try to pull the dishwasher out and see where the smoke was coming from.
She said, "Ma'am. Don't touch it. Get you and your family out of the house and wait for the fire department."
So that is what we did.
We had a picnic on the back deck.
The smoking had mostly stopped but the girls were scared that the fire department was coming to their house. So was I! I felt a bit foolish but also relieved.
It is hard to ask for help.
They arrived quickly, with the truck and all their gear.
They came in the kitchen, pulled out the dishwasher out and noticed we had not turned the water back on. (oops!)
and that the heating element had burned a small hole in the plastic floor of the dishwasher, which caused the smoke. (We had leaned on the heating element while we were retrieving the screw and apparently left it pressed against the plastic floor.) (oops again!)

Out they all took it to the driveway!





















I'd say our home repair confidence is nil now.
But at least we know the fire department can get here really quickly!