A CE680 flight crew diverted to a nearby airport with better CFR capabilities than their destination after encountering a cracked and arcing Captain's windshield.

Narrative

Passing through FL180 to our cleared altitude of 10;000 feet an amber Windshield Heat Inop-L CAS [Crew Alerting System] message illuminated. While pulling out and running the checklist for the CAS message; I smelled an electrical burning type of odor. I donned the oxygen mask. No later than a minute later; the left forward windshield cracked. I transferred controls to the First Officer because I could not see through the shattered windscreen very well. We discussed our options and then declared an emergency and asked for vectors into a nearby airport because of better emergency services available there versus our destination. Bursts of electrical arcing occurred during the descent on the shattered portion of the windscreen. Several small portions of the windscreen appeared to melt and small flames would quickly emanate and dissipate from those areas. We landed uneventfully. The airport fire department and airport operations took down my contact information after running an infrared scanner to detect any heat or possible residual fire source.