I open up many laptop batteries to build my own lithium battery packs, I seen alot of batteries at zero voltage but never any heat/fire damage, I also rarely see fuses being used on the laptop batteries themselves, rare to find thermal fuses on some.
The powertool lithium battery packs are the ones to stay away from, I bought 5 of them (50 batteries therein) all were at less then 1 volt, 10 of them had heat damage, and about three had vented. But I didnt see any fire damage and also I didnt see any fuses inside the cases. I was able to recover some of them (about 20) but they all had about 800 mah, I only use them on flashlights.
The hoverboards that caught on fire were probably more of a result of wrong wiring use (which shorted out and caught on fire) . The batteries themselves will vent, but if you put them in a fire, they will definitely burn, like any battery.
The battery packs that I have build I put 5 amp fuses on every battery, if one battery shorts out, it wont overheat and vent. The fuse will blow and that battery is removed from use, the batterypack will still work. Those fuses are the same used by tesla, they are actually called tesla fuses.
I myself think lithium is a safe technology, million of laptops and cellphones and maybe a handful of fires. Once you use a lithium powerpack, you won't want to go back to agm. I was a little scared when I got my first 94 ah lithium house battery last year (i build myself) but its easy to carry, doesnt have to be fully charged, it can go 2 to 3 days between charges. I so far stockpile about 500 18650 batteries to build an even bigger house battery. I do have a fire extinguisher nearby, but I had that even with my agm. Wiring catching on fire is the bigger hazard. Putting fuses on everything minimizes the hazard.