Why do you say that? The fire department is a service hired by us to extinguish our stuff. Didn't they learn how to put out gasoline engine car fires 100 years ago? They should have refused because they only knew how to put out horse fires?

In those 100 years, we've learned a thing or two. Which is why we have fire codes and whatnot. We reduce the variation in the number of expected scenarios.

I'll also note that in general, it is easier to learn something different when it's not similar to what you already know. Horse fire vs car fire is easy. Car type A vs car type B vs car type C is more difficult.

Don't joke, horse fires are a very real problem.

Tesla is actually _really_ good at distributing training materials to emergency responders. All vehicle manufacturers do it some some extent, but Tesla sets a very high bar.

As an example, check out this training video they put together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntK3rvVl2Qw (skip to 26:45 for the fun part ;)

This video in particular is about extrication, not firefighting, but you get the idea...

We train frequently to deal with the new challenges presented by electric vehicles.

Holy hell, that thing cuts through the car's pillar as if it were made of paper!

apparently 2 of 3 fire departments did it wrong, so...

And the 3rd one was in Mexico . . . hmmm

Fire departments had to get special training for the Prius (and other hybrid cars) because of the power cabling going from the rear battery to the front. It's not that unusual.

I think you have it wrong way round - all other electric cars should have batteries split into fireproof compartments