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

[u/AffableEffable]

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?

[u/TLunchFTW]

I mean, I’d always recommend against public directly intervening. If you don’t know enough where you are asking me if you should intervene, my answer is no. Great example, some cars have bumpers that are equipped with pneumatic shocks. These, when heated, will explode and send the bumper flying across field at kneecapping height. Most laypersons would not know this and would stand directly in front of the engine bay, resulting in a serious injury. There’s videos of people being taken out by these. This is stuff that’s intuitive to someone who’s fought fires. It’s why you generally approach at a 45 degree angle. So he’s absolutely right. Sure, putting out the fire quicker is always the better option. It means less can go wrong statistically speaking. But I would never recommend someone do it. It’s something you do if you’re knowledgeable (ie: a ff who happens to be passing by) and know what you are looking at. Even then, it’s not exactly advisable. When working, even as a volunteer, injury is covered by insurance. You don’t have that coverage when you aren’t operating as apart of a department. You don’t have a 1,000 gallons backing you up, you don’t have ppe to protect you. That said, I don’t know a firefighter alive who wouldn’t go and put this fire out, or at the very least stop to help those who might be injured and help out as they can if they saw this burning on the side of the road, even on their way to work.