What you say is true. But a catastrophic failure has the explosive power of a hand grenade. One of those in your face can ruin your day!
I would generally agree in a very narrow set of circumstances. Similarly, one's entire day could be spoilt by having a Jumbo Jet Liner crash right on top of you while you are working in the office. Although it has happened; the odds of it occurring in the first place, or re- occurring again , are about equal to having the International Space Station fall out of the sky and into your backyard one evening. Not generally something to worry over. ( Catastrophic failure, i.e. premature detonation of a 50 BMG or 50 SLAP round in your face while attempting to load and fire the weapon.)
Now I would not get within 5000 yards of a burning ammunition dump with stored 50 cal ammunition in it.
I have seen first - hand the effects that a raging fire can have on stored ammunition. I must say, the inventor of the G.I. Issue Ammo Can knew what he was doing. 350+ rounds of 12 ga ammo of various loads; 250+ rounds of 20 ga ammo of various loads; 100 rounds of 25 ACP FMJ; 100 rounds of 38 Special +P+ 158 gr Hydra shok JHP ; 100 rounds of .30-40 Krag Spitzer; 200 rounds of 8mm x 57 Mauser Nosler PTBT; 50 rounds of Federal .357 Mag SJHP; two 1 LB cans of Black Elephant FFFg Black Powder; and 200+/- #1 Percussion Caps. All stored in G.I. Issue .50 cal Ammo cans pre -fire. The entire lot detonated in the cans during the blaze. end result in the rubble - 5 very warped , bent and misshapen but still intact ammo cans; full of blackened casings, melted and charred plastic hulls, and a collection of about 65 pounds of melted and misshapen lead projectiles. Nothing penetrated the canisters, and the steel sided locker they were stored within in my closet was , except for charred paint, one of the few salvaged items from that fire, as it was intact. A very scary thought if something had.... Burning ammunition is something to run away from, as fast as possible.
Of course, the fire removed the reasons for the ammunition well enough, destroying all 11 firearms in my fireproof safe ( it was a Liberty Safe, rated for 30 minutes at temperatures >=1700 F. ) The fire Dept took 48 minutes to arrive, and another hour to put it all out.
A collection of charcoaled stocks and warped by heat tempering steel was a good boat anchor, nothing more.
and yes, I miss my Krag and my Mauser and my J.P.Sauer black powder 12 bore fowling piece. They were something very nice to behold in their day. The Krag was from a Rock Island Arsenal sale done in 1947. The Mauser was from Switzerland, one of 5,000 traded to the Swiss in return for a crash - landed FW- 190 in 1943. ( among other various small arms). Came in a beat up greasewood crate with straw poking out all over; opened it up there was a black - moldy greasy burlap and grease saturated straw mess in there. 2 hours of removing the crappois via a rag and some Mineral Spirits brought up a new in the crate Mauser with WaffenAmt stamps from under all the axle grease it had been packed in. 3 days of heavy cleaning; a saturation in a dry cleaning solvent tank to remove the hardened deposits in the interior pieces, a light soak in dry cleaning solvent to pull out the grease from the wood; and then 9 coats of linseed oil to re seal the wood followed by some carnuba wax and voila! a beautiful shooter that took more deer, antelope, and mountain lion than I can recall. the 12 bore fowling piece was one I'd paid too much for at a Cabela's Gun Library in Nebraska one year, but that was due to the fact that it was the only firearm I've ever seen stocked with White Ash.
an amazing customized stock for a discerning wingshooter. Had to take that, even at $1800 USD back then ( 1997).
But I digress.
the Game provides enough coverage for very random and freak occurrences causing casualties already , from a design standpoint, its called a SAN.
KRL, Jon H