A little difficult to make sense of all the issues in your post. Seems like the smoking and melting smell would be the most concerning to me. But without a lot more info, I would only say for something to be melting and smoking would likely take a lot of heat. Meaning it's likely something on, or in contact with, the engine or exhaust/manifold.

As far as the water pump. I've had mine go out. The fan is at practically max speed. You would notice the difference immediately. And if you drive it with the pump out, the car would go into limp mode and give you notifications pretty quickly afterward.