I woke up yesterday to a kitchen full of smoke and a tripped breaker. I opened up the bottom of the fridge (Kenmore 10653502300) and determined that the (main) problem is the starter for the compressor. It's completely melted as is the plug that goes into it. The terminals that it connects to on the compressor are blackened as well and one looks like it may have a bit of the starter unit melted onto it, or possibly be damaged itself - it's hard to tell without taking out the compressor.

Which leads me to my question - how dangerous is it for a do-it-yourselfer to take out the compressor? Is there any risk? Do I need to know/do anything special? Would it be a good idea to just replace the starter unit and check if everything else works, or should I really inspect all parts of the compressor? I'm lucky the damage didn't spread to anything other than the fridge in the first place, I don't want to end up burning down the house by doing the wrong thing now.

Thanks for any help,
Jake B.