Heat is a poppin

Hi there, last night I noticed that it was really warm in the living room. I went to the thermostat(digital) and noticed it was 23 degrees! I turned it down to like 18, but the baseboard heater would not shut off. It kept running and running no matter how low I put the thermostat. All of a sudden I heard PACK! at the baseboard heater. I ran to the electrical room and noticed the breaker did not shut, so i shut it right away.

I checked the baseboard heater and found the ground wire and blown off the screw.

I have one new 2000watt baseboard heater and one new 1000watt basebard heater running off the one new digital thermostat.

Any sugestions on what caused the baseboard heater to keep running, and why the ground wire blew off, and why the breaker did not shut down?

Any info is greatly appreciated, it will be really cold tonight and I still have't turned the breaker back on!!!

Answer.
The breaker did not open because the circuit is imprperly grounded, the wire blew off, probably because ther is a short in that heater. It is kind of coincidental that a thermostat would go bad at the same time as the heater failure so I would blame the overheat on that heater for now until you prove different. A few possibilities are that the heater is improperly wired or that there was just a failure inside but my guess is improper wiring.

Follow up.
Hi Mike. Thanks for the quick response.

Just to clarify a few things...when you say the circuit is improperly grounded, do you mean at the baseboard heater?

A breaker will not trip if it is not grounded correctly?

I forgot to mention that both baseboard heaters would not turn off, so more likely it is the thermostat??

Answer.
If the circuit is properly grounded and there is a short circuit, the breaker will trip. That is the way it is supposed to work. I do think the thermostat is probably bad it is just kind of coincidental. I think the grounding problem is between the heater and the breaker box