What a mess

Funny, I almost did it tonight. I’ve never had it get hot enough to melt sitting on the charcoal grate but tonight I dumped a chimney on one side of my “26 and let it heat up the grill. Long story short, I didn’t start cooking until quite a bit later so I set another half a chimney over the pile of lit coals to start - or at least preheat them. Realized a minute later that the handle was also over those still very hot coals. I’m pretty sure it would have ended poorly had I not changed my approach.

On the melted plastic. I doubt you ruined the kettle. It took a couple high heat burns but mine was fine (and actually more nonstick in terms of ash sticking to the side) after I melted a stick lighter.