Lighting: Mystery dryer part fried?

[wssix99]

A dryer with a 3 prong cord is grounded via neutral.

True. The chassis grounded to the electrical ground could create pathways for other badness to happen to the electronics here. (If a charge is built up on the case of the appliance, the electronics could see some odd electrical potential from the electrical ground.)

The dryer is gas -- it does have a metal vent. And it's a bit odd -- the vent had to exit the house under ground and go up -- it's SS pipe. It's not very long of a run.

If the power went through the ground ... that could be it.

That would be a nice path to ground for electrons freely flowing through the air.