Opened camera falsh causes eletric shock!?

I dropped my camera yesterday and unfortunately broke it (bend the lens). To satisfy my curiosity i decided to open it up and try and fix it (I removed the batteries and the small memory battery). So I unscrewed the body and started trying to remove the lens. The lens was screwed with the flash module. I removed the screws and the cover of the flash fell off, and i noticed the small bulb (Its a tungsten/xenon bulb). I continued to try and remove it and and slipped my screwdriver underneath a piece of plastic beside the flash. After poking around a bit, there was a loud "bang" and I got a pretty big electric shock leaving a nice burn mark on my finger (the screwdriver i was using was completely made of metal...). My question is what happened?? DId I break the bulb by twisting the plastic? Do cameras build up power after each flash in order to prepare for the next one (the batteries were out...)? Anyone can satisfy my curiosity?

Thanks