I understood a fireproof tent had been developed which enveloped the car and starved it of oxygen. I also understood firefighters had been told not to try to extinguish the car with conventional means, but to let it burn itself out while protecting the surroundings.

ICE cars catch fire as well and loved ones have been known to be inside. But it does seem an electric car is harder to extinguish.

You don't try to extinguish sodium or potassium fires with water, so I doubt lithium ones are much more co-operative. They are all alkali metals from the same family.

Nasty little critters they are. As are fires involving aluminium, magnesium and often with other materials. A former work colleague's (diesel, I think) Jag had at least the latter and succumbed to an uncontrollable fire in a tunnel on the M25 about 10 or so years ago.

Recall also the fire caused by the notorious motor racing accident at LeMans involving Sterling Moss that killed several spectators. It took ages for the car fire to end for the same reason.

A scandinavian shipping line now refuses to take EVs on their ships presumably after that huge EV-based fire than sunk another one in the Atlantic not that long ago.

Quite a few super/hypercars have gone up in flames, though more to do with poor heat shielding combined with very hot days / stong direct sunlight.

Down Under (according to John Cadogan) the 1st gen Leafs were more susceptible to battery fires because they only had passive battery cooling systems.

I am sure the fire dept know what they are doing when dealing with such things. I do not know enough about fighting fires ( cars or otherwise ) to make comment on what they do or why.