Topic

24A x 12V = 288W

The most likely cause of exploding batteries is the hydrogen gas that is generated in the electrolytic process.
In automotive general use there is so little produced that it can be disregarded as a safety issue. Also the more modern sealed lead acid batteries tend to confine the gas to within the battery casing.

Rapid charging/discharging in an enclosed space followed by arcing is the way to get an explosion.

In one of my jobs we used a lot of 12v car batteries and had a special room where they were recharged daily. (It did have an extractor fan) We had a bank of chargers in constant use, and apart from observing a no smoking, no naked flames policy, we operated safely without blowing ourselves up.

Reminds me of being in the Air Force several years back on detachment in Italy. The aircraft had a liquid oxygen container to allow the aircrew to breath at altitude. There was a portable engine driven unit to refill the cylinders off the aircraft. I remember seeing an Italian conscript recharging cylinders while leaning against the recharging unit and smoking a fag! Meanwhile you could see Oxygen venting from the machine... That was definitely NOT safe!

cjj is right and I was wrong, Its I squared times R or v squared over R for watts.,. Yes 288 watts. This was just a quick sum to see what sort of energy was available, I'm not sure what power a blow torch puts out but it must be more than that