A business imports Teslas, strips the batteries. A single Tesla battery can be split into 10-12 household rechargeable batteries that can power lights in an apartment for up to 10 hours.
The Ukrainian power system has been damaged to the point where the power is only on for 4 hours a day in some areas.
While its true that water doesn’t put out lithium fires (it makes it worse actually), there are extinguishers that do put out lithium fires. Most EV fires would burn out in 3 to 5 hours. Are you saying for your town it was quicker to find an excavator, transport it to the site of the fire with a skilled operator, dig a hole, place the burning EV in the hole and cover it up?
The end result is the car was buried. Who made the call and what methods are more efficient i couldnt say. But yeah they did smother the fire by burying it.