Tesla Fires and Firestorms: Let's Breathe and Review Some Car Fire Math

cartechboy writes: There are about 150,000 vehicle fires reported every year in the U.S. — 17 every hour. But when that vehicle fire is a Tesla, the Internet notices. There have now been three fires among roughly 20,000 Tesla Model S electric cars in the road so far. The stock is down, the Feds are asking questions and the Internet is floating in Tesla news. It may be time to check the facts and review some math (hint: we're looking at roughly one fire for every 33 million miles driven so far) and then breathe. Then look at what we know, what we don't know, and what we should know.