[Jeffhs]

Why on earth would an overloaded resistor light up as yours did? Most (nearly all) of the overloaded resistors I've ever seen will either smoke or burn in half--right across the middle, before they ever have a chance to get so hot they actually glow. Yours was obviously so badly overloaded it smoked, and from your description there must have been one heck of a lot of smoke coming from that resistor while it was glowing. All I can say is, the resistor must have been carrying much, much more current than it was meant to, if it actually lit up red. I bet it burned up inside a minute.