hot glue gun fire

[Canuke]

Yesterday I was using my few year old hot glue gun and making some repairs. The gun was plugged in for a few minutes. I suddenly heard a loud SNAP. I looked over and the gun was on fire. I quickly unplugged it and the fire went out. The glue stick had caught on fire. The gun had obviously overheated. I discarded the gun forgetting to look at the make and model but believe this could happen to other older guns. It had never given me any problems or warnings before this. I just ordered a new gun from Amazon. They have several models from $20 and up. My point is if you have an older heat glue gun you might consider retiring it and moving onto a new gun to be safe.