Well, an
UNCONTROLLED fire may burn through in twenty minutes but if the fire extinguishers work then you will have supressed the fire and in mid Atlantic could hopefully make a safe landing before the supression expires.
If the fire extinguishers fail to act then, I suspect, most would say ditch, mid Pacific not a very comfortable option.
Do we have an argument for applying ETOPS type rules to trans Pacific freighters?
