r/Firefighting • u/AffableEffable • May 17 '25

Ask A Firefighter Is This Retired Firefighter's Claim About Putting Out a Car Fire Correct?

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Hi, I ran into this discussion on twitter, and most people in the comments were really mad at the ELBainter person (who claims to be a retired firefighter). I know absolutely nothing about any of this, so I was curious: are they right and the people there are just stupid, the opposite, or something in between?

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u/[deleted] May 17 '25

EMS and fire are the only two professions I’ve seen first hand where people do all this stuff to get the people to their houses for help and as soon as they arrive the first thing the people do is… tell them everything they are doing wrong. To a certain extent this extends to social media posts.

I don’t think any professional would tell you if you can safely put out a fire to not do it. That’s why they sell consumer fire extinguishers. But there are so many hazards people don’t realize. And the people putting it out aren’t thinking clearly. They just want to save their car, without realizing it’s already a loss.

So no he isn’t wrong. And if for nothing else it should be discouraged from the simple stand point of keeping people safe and not being so worried about material possessions over their own lives.

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u/tamman2000 May 17 '25

I couldn't even tell what part of what he said the others thought was wrong in the first place. It all seemed so obvious