A short circuit rarely cause a fire!
It is very frequent that we hear news reporting fires caused by short circuits.
It's possible, but unlikely because these are protected by circuit breakers.
My experience tells me that most of the ignition is caused by a high temperature that results in an overcurrent in the conductive circuit (cables, plugs) undersized or, mainly by poor contacts.
By the way, I watched more than a dozen ignitions caused by bad contacts both at low voltage (5V still 24V) and (220VAC and 400VAC).
It is common to find plugs with pressure contacts and over time the pressure is released and the contact area decreases or, often the contact has a high frequency of interruptions. When the contact area is smaller, the conductance decreases and the temperature increases ?and when there are many intermittent contacts, an arc voltaic phenomenon occurs (normally visible in micro sparks) which increases the temperature exponentially.
The same is true if the screw connection are loose (in an industrial environment it is easier due to vibrations, for example).
One fire caused by a short circuit suppose the primary circuit protection is damaged and the current exceeds the capacity of circuits increasing the temperature dramatically.
So, when we looked at a blackened or melted plug, we were close to a potential fire and a news about a fire caused by a short circuit…