The study makes a note that it's testing HF production and not testing putting out a fire. "The intention in this study was however not to extinguish the fire c

The study makes a note that it's testing HF production and not testing putting out a fire. "The intention in this study was however not to extinguish the fire completely." If you have the luxury of isolating the burning component and a lot of open space and a consistent wind direction you can let it burn. Few places outside of ships and desolate areas have that. Airplanes definitely don't. Neither do locations inside of cities. Cars also have many lithium cells so isolating the burning one is impossible and you probably want to avoid all of them catching on fire. Letting a car fire burn on it's own means you now have clouds of HF and you need to evacuate massive area for a long time. Or you drop it in water and avoid all that.