Neighbor said smoke was coming from the air vents and smelled like something was burning. She turned off the AC and drove home. Next day she said AC worked for a little while and than stopped working. I checked it out and the AC worked on high and sometimes on the lower two settings "speed". I than pulled the climate controls and found that the plastic behind the blower speed control was melted. Connected the controls without the trim panel and could actually see huge sparks from the control when set to the highest setting. Dismantled the controls and found the burnt contacts and melted plastic (see photos). They were leaving to CA. a day later so I cleaned up the contacts and sanded them smooth, re-heated the plastic with a heat-gun back into shape. Reconnected and it worked flawless and no sparks.

It appears that the sparking wore a gap between the highest setting and the next lowest setting contacts. I assume the control was resting in the gap and made contact with both speed circuits drawing excessive current. (this is why I sanded the contacts smooth and removed the wear mark that made it feel like there was a setting position there)

This was enough so she could go to CA. and back,(because there was no time to order one, drive around to junk yards or get bent over at the dealership) but I instructed her to get a replacement as soon as she returned. She did.