I am not aware of any case of fire. So unless it caused such a bad fire, that everybody involved died, I think I would know about it having followed the PinePhone very closely, especially since June for my blog.

That said, as the fix seems to be rather trivial, distributions should just check and ship a new kernel if necessary.

I don't get this criticism. Doesn't it make sense to raise the alarm before the fire happens?

Yes, there were cases of Pinephone burning people's fingers, due to modem being used as a heatsink, and distros not doing any testing about thermal regulation working. You can easily get the modem to heat up to 70-80 deg C in that case. With regulation on, it would not get over 60, which while not pleasant is not at least hurtful.