Wow. This could have been really bad.

Yeah... if I didn't have a fire extinguisher in the garage, don't know what I would have done. Can't use the garden hose... water on electrical fires can make it worse. Can't smother it with a fire blanket (keep one of those in the kitchen for stove fires).

my advice, pay a bit extra and get a water heater with built in heat pump. That if you need to replace the water heater.

Oh, I'm replacing it. I don't trust it now. I'm thinking of going tankless. Waiting on a quote from the plumber now.

I love tankless water heaters. they should be called endless water heater.
That is the only type used in Europe.

More expensive, but far cheaper in the long run.

About every two years my "tankless" water heater blows some part that costs a small fortune to replace.
I've been waiting over a week now for the two parts it needs (one bad part destroyed the other).
The other downside to them, the temperature varies quite a bit depending on the day's temp and volume of water flowing through it.

We've got a pretty regular groundwater temperature here in SW Florida. It never gets very cold in the winter, and it's lukewarm in the summer. Unlike in Buffalo where the groundwater was cold in the summer (55F) and FRICKIN' FREEZING in the winter (negative balls cold). So I think tankless makes sense here in FL. Plus it has always seemed silly to me to have a big tank of water that's kept constantly hot in the garage when you use it maybe twice a day. Seems like a waste.