Warning, Stanley space heater killed my bird

[nightfly]

Not sure where to put this, but I went out yesterday for a couple of hours, and when I came back, the electric space heater was spewing out horrible burnt plastic scented stench from the heated air vent, and my bird lie unresponsive, dead on the bottom of his cage. He was only 28, a white capped pionus.
The power switch (off, fan only, low heat, high heat) was on the low heat setting, and was stuck in place, and hot, and I was unable to turn it off, so I unplugged it and tossed it out into my backyard; opened all the windows and doors in the house to get the stink out.
I'm not sure what type of heating element it was, nor exactly what went wrong. But the controls are right above the heating element, so something in there got too hot, even on the low setting. It isn't used to heat the whole house (that's a furnace hot air heat), I only keep it in near the bird's area to make sure it doesn't get too cold. That, apparently, was a mistake, at least with this particular heater. It had functioned normally for the past several years, so I had no idea that this was ever likely to happen.

The heater is a Stanley ST-221-A 120, shown here: https://www.amazon.com/STANLEY-ST-221A-120-Profile-Electric-Heater/dp/B07L36CXJB/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=stanley+space+heater&qid=1606500644&sr=8-8

Pic:

I understand that accidents can happen, but now I will always associate Thanksgiving holiday with the death of my friend, my bird.
RIP Max. I will miss you.

[Pajarita]

Oh, my! I am soooo sorry for your loss! And thank you so much for taking the time to come over and let us know of the danger! That was truly very nice of you, considering that you are in mourning for poor Max. I also use electric heaters for the birds -the oil-filled electric kind as I think those are the safest... at least, I've never had a problem with any of them and I've been using the same kind for many years.