oxygen sensor fried?

ok so heres whats happening on my 97 4.0L AW4 4x4. ok so about august of last year when gas prices shot up in an attemp to improve fuel mileage i replaced the oxygen sensor before the cat with a bosch replacement from autozone. i would have done both before and on the cat but the one on the cat was soo expensive and i hadnt gotten a code on that one before so i just replaced the first one cuz i had gotten a code from the one a couple of times in the 3 years i had the jeep. well a few months ago i had my check engine light kept comin on and when i would check it with my scanner i kept gettin a code for the first OS and finally when i the jeep at the dealership to get the clock spring fixed so i would have an airbag, horn, and cruise control again i also had them find out y it kept throwin that code oh and by this point i had a month old OS on the cat too. well turns out when i swapped my header the wires that run down to the OS before the cat i had let them hang right there next to the header and the insulation around the wires had melted off and they were all touchin now. well i found out i should have draped te wires over the power steering pump to hold them away from the header to keep that from happening. now the dealership wanted $400 dollars the cut the 4-5 inches of burnt wire out of all 4 wires and solder in new peices and i didnt feel like payin that much money for such a simple job that i did myself in about 30 min. and yes i did solder them and i used heat shrink around the solders. so i wanna know since those wires were touchin do you think the could have short circuited the OS and fried it? cuz its still throwin the code. also im gettin codes for the one on the cat now too and its only a couple of months old

It's very much possible. I had almost the same issue on my front sensor...I managed to see it one day while I was changing the oil and move it before it fried through the holder the wire was in.

As far as the second 02 sensor, what code is is throwing? Mine has been throwing p0138 on and off since about March but I never could catch it actually shorting out. I finally did about 3 weeks ago, and now the light is starting to come on, on a daily basis....it also varies when it comes on...sometimes i'm driving down the highway, sometimes i'm stuck in a traffic jam, and others, it'll come on overnight when the engine isn't even on (meaning the light is off that night when I shut it off for the last time, and it magicaly appears the next morning when I first fire it up).

What does the code say? You could have blown the O2 sensor power fuse or relay.