Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-26919090-20170404012605/@comment-25458443-20170408084930

I think the idea was that chell was literally the only human she could test so she had to make do with what she had.

That's surely not a story related piece of evidence, lots of weird funky stuff happens if you noclip into areas you aren't supposed to see. From a game design perspective, why animated the cube burning to a crisp if nobody is actually able to look inside the incinerator without breaking the game? Exactly.