In the movies, cars pretty much always blow up. In reality, this is much less frequent. In a Chuck Norris movie, all cars blow up about 30 seconds after Chuck gets out of them. So most people think cars are going to blow up, even though they usually don't.
The rescuer in this case meant well, and should not be liable, in my opinion. But I haven't seen all the testimony, which might have some extenuating circumstances in it.