TBH, I don't think the issue is how many EV fires compared to ICE vehicles, but the absolute runaway fire that it does create on the rare occasion that it does happen.
Is that really true though?
Yes, battery fires put out a lot of heat and toxic gasses but as we saw in Luton, the MUCH more common ICE fires can cause massive amounts of damage.
Throw in a Hybrid and like most things with those vehicles you have the worst of both worlds, you have a vehicle much more likely again to catch fire than even an ICE vehicle, with the battery and a tank of flammable liquid to cause maximum mayhem.
If you find the Fire investigators who did the youtube breaking down the Tesla that caught fire after hitting a massive chunk of metal that fell off a truck near Goulburn, the lengths that Tesla have gone to in regards to fire safety over and above other EV brands are quite amazing.
The biggest surprise to me was how untouched the cabin was, even a cheap plastic bottle of water sitting in the cup holder was untouched (the cheap clear plastic kind that will melt in the sun after five minutes). Yes I know the gasses would have made the interrior unsurvivable, but the way the battery pack is designed to drop any burning batteries out to limt spread and the protection between the pack and the cabin was quite amazing to see.
Was also interesting that the Tesla warned the occupants straight away, they had time to pull over all get out, they even went back to the vehicle I think it was 10-15 minutes later to get their stuff out of the boot (which was still operating despite the smoking batteries). That was quite amazing given the catastrophic damage that was done to the battery pack.
