Not trying to say the firefighter is a fool or anything, but shouldn't he be trained to not create a bigger problem by throwing a flaming piece of hardware out the window? Maybe it was raining ...
My phone gets warm sometimes when charging, or if I'm on it for a LONG time with it in my pocket (talking over bluetooth). But after the first time I had it charging on a blanket with a book placed on top of it, when it started roasting I decided that if it got hot enough to catch either the blanket or book on fire, it would be my fault for being so stupid. Same thing happens when the phone is in direct sunlight or if I'm sitting on it. The thing gets really really hot. So considering these things, how dumb do people have to be to insulate their device when it's charging?
I'm pretty sure Apple states very clearly in one of those papers they send packaged with the phone not to cover it, etc when charging. Of course a firefighter would make it sound like the thing was 100% out of control for no reason to keep his reputation of being a "not stupid" firefighter. After he threw it out the window.
I'll bet he was the cool guy down at the station after this happened. But I'm not sold on anything but his stupidity.