You are right about sub par wiring in barns. Oily rags, are yet another source of fire in outbuildings (used to be worse when boiled linseed oil was a commonly used farm chemical).
But bare inc. bulbs have been known to break and drop superheated tungsten. This will ignite flamable debris should it come in contact.
The point is NO light source is 100% safe, close but not 100%. Just look what the Mine Safety folks require for light sources in explosive environments, same requirement when I was using lights inside fuel tanks during repair operations.
This hysteria about CFLs is just that, hysteria. When you but billions of electric devices into service, some will catch fire, but the rate will be so low as to be insignificant.
No it's all about a general poor design and our federal government passing laws. Watts means heat displacement. The heat must go somewhere. On the older incandescents the heat was in the element. With CFL's the heat is in the electronic ballast located at the base of the socket.
Here is another unmentioned factor and likely the actual reason these bulbs catch fire more frequent than incandescents. Certain utilities in the past decade have raised the voltage entering the average home from what was once 110/220 to nearly now at 130/260 volts. The old transformer ballast could take that abuse better and could take voltage spikes and surges fairly well as could incandescents to a point. The CFL's are right on the margin of failure to start with since the electronics are confined and enclosed.
Most persons do not even have a clue as too what the voltage is in their home. The bulb in the picture in the article is rated at 120 volts. Most homes these days run well above 120 volts on a single circuit. Mine was 128/256 till I finally got my utility to put up a lower voltage transformer because I was sick and tired of replacing some very expensive items in my home. I feel sorry for anyone living near the substation using them. They likely have no clue as too why the darn things won't last.