When a jumpstart goes wrong? Safety Question

Neighbor tried jumping my wife’s ‘06 Nissan Altima, we left it for 10 minutes and came back and the cables had melted through the headlight of both cars and some of the bumper. I wasn’t there but thankfully they stopped their car and were able to disconnect the cables without incident. We noticed after there had been mice living in around her engine from the mouse poop, minimum the last two weeks. What causes jumper cables to do this? Something a rodent may have chewed? Definitely an issue with my wife’s car. Our poor neighbors have a newish midsized suv. My wife has also had constant issues starting her car, even with a new battery I got a year or two ago. Anyone seen this before?

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u/YourInMySwamp Dec 31 '23

Huh. I thought it was recipient positive to donor positive, donor negative to recipient ground.

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u/stuckels8 Dec 31 '23

That's exactly what he said

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u/YourInMySwamp Dec 31 '23 edited Dec 31 '23

I am like 90% sure he edited it and that previously it said “recipient ground to donor negative”. You can see another response to my comment where somebody was asking for clarification on if negative should always go to ground. Maybe I’m just stupid though lol.

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u/oatsssss Dec 31 '23

"recipient ground to donor negative" and "donor negative to recipient ground"

Are the same thing tho right? Or you mean to emphasize the order so ground is connected first so it's not loose to accidentally hit something while it's connected to the negative terminal?

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u/YourInMySwamp Dec 31 '23

Yes exactly! I was emphasizing the order that they are connected. As far as I am aware the circuit will work regardless of the order but the jump is more efficient and quick when done in the recommended order.