Dryer lint trap being clogged - is the risk that the dryer would catch on fire, or that the air vent would catch on fire?

Factual Questions
1

For some reason, I failed to clean the dryer lint trap for a long time when it’d always been automatic habit for me. Now I found out this morning the thing was fully clogged and that’s why my clothes had been remaining wet in the dryer.

Obviously, first thing was to clean the trap at once. But when people say it’s a “fire risk,” do they mean the dryer itself would catch on fire (not sure how, it’s a metal device, although maybe the paint inside the dryer is flammable?) or that the tubing and piping that leads through the wall to vent the air outside would catch on fire (in which I guess it means there’s the risk it would spread fire to the rest of the house?)

2

Both. If the vent is clogged, there is likely lint backed up to the heating element. My wife had a dryer fire while I was deployed overseas. Luckily it was more of a flash fire than a conflagration. Make sure you (or someone) takes the back off the dryer and cleans that area.

3

A house nearby pretty much burned to the ground due to a clogged dryer vent (well, they had to completely demolish and rebuild so it was a total loss). According to news, the vent that ran through the wall cavity caught fire and it went from there. Ours is only a few feet long and then vents through the exterior all and out. It’s easy to pull out and vacuum once per year so I do.

4

That needs clean too,

5

Dryers have one or two thermal fuses, which should open when they sense an over-temperature condition.

6

My HOA requires the dryer vent be cleaned by a professional every other year. Not all HOA rules are bad.

7

Lint is very flammable. I use it to make firestarters to get campfires going in damp weather.

Yes, there is a potential for the dryer, the contents of the dryer, and whatever lint is in the outlet ducts to catch fire. Please fix ASAP.

8

I use the dryer lint to start the fire in our burn barrel. Very flammable indeed.

9

Most dryer ducts are fairly easy to clean yourself unless they exit through the roof or soffit. I clean mine twice a year with one of these:

10

And that shit burns HOT. Back in the day, when I was a cheap, dumb bachelor, I had the aluminum mesh lint traps on the washing machine discharge. Instead of buying new ones, I got the idea that I’d just burn the lint off the old one, since it was made of metal.

Thankfully, I was doing it in the cement sink that the water discharged into, because I ended up with a damn hot fire, a small lump of metal, and a burned spot in the sink.

11

Unless one of the HOA board of governors has a nephew who cleans dryer vents.

12

I have extinguished a fair number of dryer fires over the years (always someone elses, never my own). The lint starts burning for whatever reason, then ignites the clothes inside the dryer drum and the motor/wiring/controls inside the dryer case. The clothes are burning and melting inside an enclosed area with insufficient airflow, so you get a very smoky fire. Dryer fires have a very distinctive smell. Super dense brown and dark yellow smoke, and lots of it. First building fire I was on the first line in was a dryer fire in a basement - good memories there.

The fire can also exit the dryer following the vent, which is what usually causes a dryer fire to extend to the rest of the building. While the dryer itself may not be terribly combustible, we put a lot of combustible stuff in it that releases near flammable stuff on a regular basis.