Bleed off liquid fuel in an emergency?

[Themohawkninja]

I had an idea when I was replying to the thread who's OP was questioning the lack of safety of SRB's compered to liquid engines.

Would it be possible (and more importantly, practical), to, in the case of an emergency regarding a liquid fueled rocket, to open some sort of valve and just let the burning fuel out of the rocket to avoid a dangerous build up of pressure?

[Thaniel]

Well, that would only be the pressure you would prevent, the net result would be a low-pressure inferno instead. And that is if the valve to open was large enough.

When a tank of two component liquid fuel get a catastrophic leak, if it is not pressurised, the result depends on wether or not both fuel and oxidizer leaks, or just one. Where it is, if the leak is enlarging or not, if there are any hot or birning surfaces nearby, etc. Etc. Opening valves to release more fuel/oxidizer into the environment might not be such a good idea. The longer a catastrophic disassembly can be staved off, the further away a crewed capsule can get before the remaining fuel goes kerbal.