[petek]

The fire would come from the dead short (ammeters are very low resistance) combined with the large gauge wiring. The battery would dump 900+ amps into the wire. A lot of heat would be generated, most likely causing a fire.

Other than ammeters for ac, I don't know of any that don't go in-line. You could use a voltmeter and monitor the voltage drop across an in-line shunt, in effect relocating the meter but not the point of measurement.