That's not necessarily true. An item can smolder and produce an awful lot of smoke without ever having actual open flames appear. And, if there's enough of it, it's the smoke that kills you.
Following Global Strike Command suspending use of the SIG Sauer M18 after an Airman was killed, the use of the P320 has been disallowed at Gunsite Academy unless the student is LE or .mil and it's their issue sidearm.
Ian's got an accurate take here. If there's too much smoke, at some point it doesn't matter whether or not there's a fire.
