The point of the saying is that if there's evidence (smoke) of something normally worth paying attention to (fire), said thing is indeed present. If something

The point of the saying is that if there's evidence (smoke) of something normally worth paying attention to (fire), said thing is indeed present. If something is smoking on your stove, it's worth paying attention to, whether it's because you're actively searing something on an electric or because your pan is empty. My OP was the one you should come at with this tone lol, they were the ones that sidetracked off whether or not "if there's smoke, there's fire" is a useful idiom. Maybe a better question would have been, "though there's no actual fire, would not those instances of smoke still be worth noting?" Shall we start thinking of times smoke is present, and not worth anyone's attention?