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My opinion on this:
Not grounding the wires CAN bust through the insulation if the available spark is strong enough, AND the insulation is weak or compromised. But the chances of this happening are sort of iffy and the coils probably are crap anyhow.
Chances of a fire: YES, YES, YES. The only reason I’m sitting here writing this is because I was standing to one side. And the Grace of God. See, I had this electric start V4 motor that wouldn’t start, mounted on the boat, and was about to check for spark by cranking it using a jumper switch to run the starter. Plugs were out. Open spark checker was on plug wires. What I didn’t know was that the motor was badly flooded. As soon as I hit that start jumper switch and the motor started to spin over, that flooding gas came blasting out of the spark plug holes an the spark checker ignited it. A column of fire came shooting out about 10 feet. If I had been standing one foot closer in line, that burning gas would have hit me and I would have been on fire. Another stroke of luck was that I didn’t set the shop on fire.
Be safe, guys. And think.