Water heater alert!

[baclava]

A neighbour of ours recently had a scary and extremely frightening experience when there Arcelik water heater caught fire. This happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning and luckily was spotted before the fire could spread inside the apartment. The heater was installed outside the property. Extensive damage occurred to adjacent washing machine and stored clothes, as well as the cupboard the heater was in.
The most probable cause was the flexible inlet pipe bursting which emptied the heater tank and allowed the heater to continue working but with no water inside, consequently overheating.
This was a heater about 6 years old.
Should there have been an 'overheating protection' on the boiler, and why didn't the thermostat cut off when high temperature was reached.?
New boilers on Arcelik website state that overheating protection is built in, but what about a 6 year old boiler?
There must be hundreds of these heaters installed which could pose a serious fire risk.

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