Don_DickleNot looking for how to meth. But is not a moonshiners still about as dangerous as a meth house exploding? What the difference?
knightly the SneptaurShort version, distillation isn’t a chemical process but a simple physical state change from liquid to gas and back. Alcohol vapors can be explosive when mixed with Oxygen in an appropriate ratio, but there generally is no potential source of ignition between the boiling chamber and the cooling chamber and the expanding vapors push the oxygen out of the system early on in a production cycle.
Producing meth, however, is a multi-step process requiring both chemical and physical state changes with a panoply of reagents and waste products which are corrosive, toxic, flammable, explosive, or even potentially radioactive. Some of those waste products are gasses that react explosively with air, or volatile organic compounds which have to be vented from the production equipment and subsequently settle and condense into a residue that contaminates all surfaces in or near the meth lab. That residue can include substances which ignite spontaneously on contact with water, further increasing the risk of fire or explosion and turning any firefighting operations into a hazmat operation.
This is why firefighters typically work to protect surrounding structures, but let the meth lab burn. That is, if it is already known to be a meth lab. Between the toxic chemicals and the difficulty of dealing with various chemical fires it is safer to just let it burn itself out if possible.