Electrical Smell

72chevy4x4

I was running down an electrical smell yesterday and finally isolated it to a large tea pot whose electrical cord to the unit was very hot and the heating element in the bottom of the pot had the tell-tale electrical burn smell. During the hunt for the culprit, I was checking florescent ballasts/lights and came across a 2x2 with a burnt/melted connector on one end of the tubes.

Question is, would that melted connector (still worked) be because of a poor connection with the lamp? Looked like arcing at the connector. If not b/c of the poor connection, any other reason?

Electric_Light

Is it an instant start fixture? Corrosion and loose lamp does that.