That or the line filter caps blew. It sounds and looks really bad but it's harmless. Just remove them and you can continue working. It blowing up when you touched the cabling is pure chance and completely unrelated.

One thing if you have it is to floppy boot the machine and see if it mounts the disk. Not always promised the drive will mount because disk drivers in those days were weird but this can help get around a messed up system folder, which form your description you might have.

Also, I know the CMS enclosure you are talking about. I've had two of them. The dip switches on the back are a terrible design.