You’re correct that they can enter thermal runaway, they just can’t autoignite. I really suspect that if this site has been using LiFePO4 cells instead of NMC, it wouldn’t have gone up like it did. 3000 MWh of NMC cells sounds absolutely bugnuts crazy to me.
There was a huge kerfuffle about it here when it happened. We had a law on the books that allowed it and the dude insisted on it, ostensibly for religious reasons. I can’t remember if we took the law off the books or not, but I hope we did. While nobody else knows who fired the killing shots, the people who did it know. If they’re the type that wants to kill, then I don’t want to give them the pleasure. If they’re not, I don’t want to make those people live with a violent death on their conscience. It’s fucked up, just like executions in general.
EDIT: Execution by firing squad had been removed in 2004, but anyone sentenced before then had it as an option. Gardner was grandfathered in.