Yep, saw a lint fire in our local newspaper--the homeowner noticed the smoke and then flames coming up through the floor from the basement. It spread that quickly. (And if I recall, it was the house one of our suburbs' mayors lived in.)
I know in our area, they might have outlawed those plastic flexible dryer vent pipes. I am a fan of the old solid galvanized steel pipes. Ours has a metallic flexible pipe, but I am checking once every couple of months to make sure there is good airflow outside, and there is. Where I lived a decade ago, there was a long dryer vent pipe that went from the laundry room all the way to the back of the house. With the finished basement, there was no access to it, and the previous owner ended up venting it into the garage since that long pipe had become clogged over the years.
Our dryer did have the safety switch go bad on it, though, about a decade ago. It got to where it would just not turn on at all. I bypassed it temporarily and it started right up. My better half called her dad, who went to Sears and picked up the part which I put on that night, and it has been running ever since.
Makes me wonder if the dryer in question here might have a defective (overly sensitive) safety mechanism in it--a switch, a sensor, etc.