Unfair comparison still. How many of those cars were old and in disrepair? How many of them were non-fatal accidents? How many of them were due to running over debris?
However, last year the 2013 Ford Fusion was recalled (over 89k sold) after 13 fires caused by engine overheating: http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/best-cars-b...
It's not clear whether the Tesla catches fire more often than other cars from road debris, 2 instances could be coincidence (I've never run over something that caused actual damage to my car after years of driving, crosses-finger).
However, that is the government's job, to examine the fire and determine whether they should have been prevented.
As for running over debris, again it is not important because who cares if gasoline cars have different causes for their fires vs the causes of the model S. What matters is the percentage that actually do catch on fire with a large enough population.
After that, the next question that should be asked is, what is the difference between the danger of these fires. Are gasoline fires more or less dangerous.
There are pressure relief valves on the tank that prevent that from happening in the vast majority of cases.
They burn, sure. They almost never explode.
If your tank was punctured while driving it's quite likely the first you'd know was when you ran out.