You're quite right. But if the metal isn't chemically reacting with the water - and it doesn't look like molten iron does - that's not that bad. If you asked m

You're quite right. But if the metal isn't chemically reacting with the water - and it doesn't look like molten iron does - that's not that bad. If you asked me to fight such a fire, I'd setup some unmanned nozzles, retreat, turn on the pumps slowly, and just wait it out. Probably will be an expensive total loss. But no-one gets hurt, and the burning iron doesn't itself release particularly toxic fumes, so no long term harm. Not that bad really for an industrial fire.