I know there are certain types of fires that, if one uses water on it, will get worse. But as far as I know, firefighters use water tanks and fire hydrants for virtually every fire too large for a fire extinguisher to do the job.
Is it an issue of if the source isn’t large enough or too far away it doesn’t matter? How do they know the kind of fire before reacting to it?
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Very few structure fires will get worse if you use water and at the end of the day, if there’s wood involved you need water to take the heat away.
Fire trucks do have various additives onboard that can be used. Most departments will have foam on hand or have access if needed for fighting oil/fuel fires. The foam is made by mixing some chemicals with water so they still need a lot of water but also the additives. If they don’t have a source of water available then the foam maker is useless.
Even if there’s a lot of oil on the ground thats on fire, adding water to it will just cause it to float on top. The concern with water in oil fires in houses is because you have a fairly deep container of oil that you’re adding water into which will cause the water to flash boil and push the oil up and out, but unless you have a massive tank of burning oil its not a problem
There are a couple special cases where water absolutely cannot be used but the buildings are generally secured and the fire department will know what buildings they are well in advance so they can prepare accordingly if they get a call. If the titanium mill is on fire you just let that bad boy burn and keep it from spreading because nothing you can do is going to make it better
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