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Years ago in Northern Italy lots of people died unnecessarily during an earthquake.
Reason was that an earthquake will trigger intended power shutdowns so as to avoid electrical sparks igniting ruptured gas pipes.
The unintended consequence was that the electrical main door openings of many buildings could not be operated. Backup keys, almost never used, were safely stored in locked drawers, practically unreachable in the rush to exit the damaged buildings - many of these then fell on top of the people piling up against blocked exit doors.
I mention this, because X5 have two batteries in the back. The car software has ample (and user-unknown) capacities to switch batteries. In a crash locked doors are designed to always unlock, but a fire is a different event..
What is very worrying here is the OP's description that the fire started (possibly due to a shorted main battery cable), then to protect the battery electrical power was shutdown for many seconds keeping the doors locked and only after a while power came back allowing door unlocking, probably by switching the door controls to the second still functioning battery.
If this is what happened, there may be a major software safety bug that needs rewiew and correction. Likely in this case the car's firmware has dumped the events in memory allowing to study the accident.
It is a horrible perspective to risk being locked in a burning car, this looks like a major safety incident that can be fully studied because the car and its firmware survived - and, above all, its occupants!
Please keep us posted - thank you!
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