There have only been a relative handful of deaths in oil & gas industry from blowouts. I worked on 4 in one year in Eastern Libya and no lives were lost or even injuries sustained. All were contained, its relatively to blow the flame out but till you have controlled the flow it is safer and cleaner to let them burn off the flammable gas.
Usually the well turns to gas because of high flow, so the amount of oil spilled is limited. There have been a few notable exceptions, like Macondo well being drilled from Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and the Piper Alpha disaster in North Sea.
With Hundreds of millions of batteries in private houses, the residents are often asleep or absent, so the total consequences of thermal runaway and fire are going to be more dramatic. Putting them in a weatherproof fireproof enclosure away from the house is costly or impossible in many situations.
We don't encourage people to store drums of petrol in their garage so why would we permit Lithium batteries? Petrol can only ignite if there is a leak to air and an ignition source. A Lithium battery can catch fire due to mechanical damage or a circuit fault in the charger, at any time.
