ELI5- Are lithium batteries in electric cars more dangerous or hazardous than a gasoline car? If so, why or why not?
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Hard to compare risks like that, but from a pure amount of energy point of view, gasoline cars have more energy stored and might be more dangerous for that reason.
Gasoline has an energy density of 46 MJ/kg. 10 gallons (US) of gas is 60lbs, or 27kg. So a typical to smallish tank of gas in a car would have 1,242 MJ of energy in it.
A bigger EV might have an 100kWh battery, which is 360MJ of energy.
From the standpoint of conservation of energy, if the absolute worst happens and all that energy is released at once, the gas tank would be more bad.
(this is why also why a gas car can usually drive more miles on one tank than an EV can drive on one charge)
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