I had that happen in my first car, a 1970 Ford Maverick. If anyone had been sitting in the passenger seat they would've had severe burns. Why any manufacturer would put something like that inside the firewall under the dash is beyond me.
In another scary instance about a dozen or so years ago, I picked my daughters up from a week of summer camp. It was about 45 miles in each direction and mostly highway. I was doing about 70 mph both ways and when we got near home they told me they were hungry so we stopped into a fast food burger joint. After eating we got in the car and backed up, the front right side of the car dropped ... The ball joint snapped. If that happened at 70 we would've been toast.