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I like the theories people have about it changing the properties of the steel, but sorry to say rims don't go through heat treating to begin with, so they can't be annealed. In fact they they don't make rims out of steel, steel is unsafe, they are cast iron.
Not all rims are cast iron either. In fact I would say that 90% of them are not. Most factories are using some type of alloy in the rims to make them both cheaper to make and lighter thus improving fuel economy. My poor alum. alloy rims would definitely not make it through a fire. Steel rims would certainly become brittle and any alloy would also experience some type of change due to the heat and sudden quenching. Even if the rims have been heat treated to make them stronger this also makes them more brittle. Heat treating was common practice on several of our components and it made the metal super hard but also super brittle. Those rims have definitely been heat treated now and through an out of control process.