In my personal opinion, this was clearly an evacuate situation at the moment the aircraft came to a stop. My past military training and actual experience in shipboard aircraft fire fighting lead me to that conclusion. This was no small fire. If the fire had proceeded unimpeded, it would be reasonable to expect the hull to be breached. The amount of fuel on the ground under the aircraft could not be known by the crew, but the scope of the fire clearly extended to one entire wing. There is no video or pictorial evidence to indicate that fire ever reached under the aircraft to the port side so it appears that an escape route was visibly available and that opening the doors on the port side of the aircraft would not have introduced fire or smoke.
Compare to:
Originally Posted by NTSB Asiana Accident report.
After the airplane came to a stop, a fire initiated within the separated right engine, which came to rest adjacent to the right side of the fuselage. When one of the flight attendants became aware of the fire, he initiated an evacuation, and 98% of the passengers successfully self-evacuated. As the fire spread into the fuselage, firefighters entered the airplane and extricated five passengers (one of whom later died) who were injured and unable to evacuate. Overall, 99% of the airplane’s occupants survived
Note that in the picture below, the burning engine fire was relatively small and localized and there were exits ahead and behind the source of the fire that were not scorched and apparently usable.
