Did I wreck my new ceiling fan?

This afternoon I installed a new ceiling fan in my bedroom. Everything went okay, but I had a really hard time getting the canopy to fit over the bracket, because the canopy had gotten a little bent - of course, right where it was supposed to screw into the bracket. I straightened it out best I could, and with some jiggling finally got the fan mounted. So I plugged the fuse back in and flipped the switch…

only to hear a “pop” and see a spark of electricity come out of the canopy.

So, off went the switch, and I unplugged the fuse again (it hadn’t burnt out), and took the fan down again. It seems that with the jiggling I did to get the fan on the bracket, the black wire (for the fan motor?) got pinched by the bracket and the insulation was scraped away. There is a nice little sooty mark on the bracket where the contact took place.

My question is, is this fan probably hosed now? Or can I cut back the black wire to where the insulation was scraped away, and try connecting it again?

You’re probably ok. Shorting the hot lead to ground shouldn’t pull any damaging current through the fan motor or its control circuitry. If you cut it back and re-strip it as you suggest, it ought to be fine.