Man, glad that didn't prove more damaging. Those things can really burn HOT!
First I ever heard of this problem with lithium batteries was in relation to drones. There have been cases of people losing their homes from fire when the stored batteries would sometimes ignite without even being damaged. As they age, they can swell, and as some people have found out, spontaneously burst into flames.
And yes, drone crashes sometimes resulted into a fiery death of the drone too.
Rule of thumb has been that ANY minor damage to a lithium battery, even just suspected, meant discarding and safely disposing of the battery.
Many such batteries have electronics on board that will discharge them to 30 to 50 percent of full charge after a period of unused time to try to reduce the "flame on" problem. I guess a little fire is better than a big fire.
A little while back I was going to switch out the batteries on my camera flashes, and noticed that one of the new ones to go in was giving some resistance. Luckily I didn't press it all of the way in place, otherwise I never would have been able to get it back out. Inspection showed that this battery was swelling up, making it a very tight fit. Had this happened while the battery was in the flash, well, that would have meant I would have had to dispose of the flash and buy a new one. The flash only had a spring in the well to pop out the battery, and that wouldn't have been sufficient with an overly tight fitting battery.
So ANY lithium based battery is dangerous as a fire hazard. Which is why USPS will NOT accept them in shipments. And honestly, they should be stored in something fire proof such that if they do happen to erupt into flame, they won't burn your house down on you. It CAN and HAS happened.
As for vehicles with these things in them, well, thanks, but NO thanks. Being burned alive from a battery fire is not going to feel any better than being burned alive via a gasoline based fire.
And just wait for the stories about electric vehicle batteries swelling up and being unable to be replaced, resulting in a trashed vehicle (out of warranty, of course) that needs to be replaced instead of just the batteries. Not that "just" a battery replacement won't be expensive enough as it is.
Nope, not sold on the idea, neither. That and my suspicions is that this is just a ploy to reduce the mobility of people in general. I sure don't want to be limited to a radius of the half way discharge point of the EV battery for whenever I just want to take a drive. Imagine if your truck was an EV. How would that work out for you?
I believe there are notable videos on YouTube about lithium batteries that could be eye opening. If I remember correctly, there were even cell phones spontaneously bursting in flames for some people. Not fun if it is in your back pocket at the time.
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