Bava Kamma 61: Three Types of Damages by Fire

Today's daf includes three Mishnayot.  Each of these concerns damages paid when one sets fire to another's property.  

Our first Mishna teaches that if a person sets a fire and it jumps across four cubits, he is exempt from liability.  The Gemara debates how this could be so when a baraita suggests that one is liable in this case. Why should we believe that there are limits on one's liability when s/he lights a fire, regardless of how high a fire jumps?  The rabbis suggest that perhaps the fire jumped four cubits after burning at a certain height.  They wonder whether we are discussing a fire that leaped across a field, or a thoroughfare, or a river, or a different body of water.  How might they understand which jump is significant, regardless of the number of cubits jumped?

Our second Mishna teaches that one who kindles a fire is exempt from damage done beyond a sixteen cubit radius. The Gemara wonders what distances are significant when it comes to damages.  They speak about the halachot regarding standing inside of ovens within the home.  One has to be careful about ceiling height - but also about building materials in different parts of the home.  The rabbis wonder whether or not the height of the fire might make a difference in determining liability.

Our third Mishna shares an argument regarding liability for vessels that are hidden inside a stack of produce set ablaze.  Should the rabbis agree with Rabbi Yehuda, who asserts that the person who kindles the fire liable because his action causes the damage?  Or is he exempt, because he could not have predicted that unusual occurrence of vessels within the stack?  The rabbis all agree with Rabbi Yehuda regarding the contents of a home that is set on fire.  The person who set the fire is liable for all contents within the home.

The Gemara wonders: is this a case where the fire was set within a person's own property and it spread, causing a stack to ignite?  The rabbis question whether the vessels held grain or another substance; they wonder whether a person's threshing tools might have been hidden and destroyed by the fire.

These rulings represent clear categories of cases rather than actual cases.  The rabbis seem to be teaching us which questions to ask; how to think.