"I assume, because of the question mark, that that was a question..."

Actually it was rhetorical but good answer. The battery is toast but there is always the issue of the elcheapo charger.

I remember most NiCds charge through a resistor to limit the current, at least the smaller ones like in cordless phones. However I wouldn't put it past them to just let the trsansformer choke on the current to limit it. In that case yup, the charger could fry.

I thought exploding batteries was a more recent phenomenon, but then again there are more things in heav.... wait heaven has absolutely nothing to do with this,...

You know newer cars are like that now. You can't just stick a completely dead battery in them because it will fry the alternator. Cheap junk.