[TomCassisa]

My Whirlpool Dryer heats up only briefly after first turning it on.

We had a build up of excessive lint and a small fire occurred that scorched the lint built up on the very bottom of the appliance . No wires or other parts appeared to be visibly damaged.

After cleaning the excessive and scorched lint and trying to restart the unit, I found the heating element gets red when first turning the unit on, then immediately goes out. I figure the T-stat, hi - limit (Part Number: AP3084674 made by WHIRLPOOL) could have been damaged by the heat when the excessive lint briefly ignited.

Is this the part I should try to replace 1st or should I try something else?

[sidfink43]

The hi limit thermostat does not reset itself, so if it is bad, it stays bad.

I would try the cycling thermostat,

Part number: AP3045874

This is coming up as a gas model, if that is the case you will need to check out and probably replace the gas components.