By Paul Homewood
This story has been doing the rounds in the last few days:
BERLIN/LISBON (Reuters) -A ship carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys, that caught fire near the coast of the Azores will be towed to another European country or the Bahamas, the captain of the nearest port told Reuters on Friday.
Lithium-ion batteries in the electric cars on board the vehicle carrier Felicity Ace have caught fire and the blaze requires specialist equipment to extinguish, captain Joao Mendes Cabecas of the port of Hortas said.
It was not clear whether the batteries first sparked the fire.
“The ship is burning from one end to the other… everything is on fire about five metres above the water line," Cabecas said.
Pictures provided by the Portuguese maritime authority showed severe burns on the bow and along the 200-metre-long 200 meters (220-yard-long) side of the ship, which according to Refinitiv data was built in 2005 and can carry 17,738 tonnes of weight.
Around 1,100 Porsches and 189 Bentleys were on board, spokespeople for the car brands owned by Volkswagen said. Audi, another Volkswagen brand, confirmed some of its vehicles were also on the ship but did not state how many.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/container-ship-carrying-volkswagen-vehicles-075147126.html
Whatever the cause, once the fire spread to the batteries, there was little anybody could do to stop it.
And as the Independent reports:
Specialists will be needed to put out a raging fire on an abandoned cargo ship in the Atlantic Ocean due to complications from burning lithium-ion batteries inside the thousands of luxury cars aboard the vessel.
Experts are now going to be called out to help stop the blaze, as burning lithium-ion batteries can be difficult to stop. Lithium-ion battery fires often require dry chemicals or total flooding of the battery with water to stop.
According to a study done in 2013 by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Development, the batteries burn extremely hot and produce noxious gases.
“In the event of a lithium ion battery catching fire, it is important to note that such a fire reaches very high temperatures, produces toxic gases and is inextinguishable,” the report concluded.
Fires caused by the batteries – or which they are caught up in – have become a major concern for international shipping entities, particularly as electric vehicles become more affordable and popular among consumers.
The US Transportation Research Board funded a 2022 study noting the risks and a lack of current readiness to deal with potential fires.
Curiously however, the BBC report on the fire fails to mention the words “battery” or “electric cars” at all!
I wonder why?
Thousands of Porsche and Volkswagen cars have been abandoned on a cargo ship after it caught fire in the Atlantic Ocean en route to the US.
The ship, named Felicity Ace, was travelling from Emden in Germany before it caught ablaze off the coast of Portugal’s Azores islands.
German newspaper Handelsblatt reported the vessel was carrying 3,965 vehicles, which also included Audis, Lamborghinis and a small number of Bentleys.
The ship’s crew have been rescued.
Portugal’s navy said no one was hurt by the fire, which broke out on Wednesday, and the 22 crew members were taken to a hotel after the navy, four merchant ships sailing in the area and the Portuguese Air Force completed the evacuation.
"The owner of the ship Felicity Ace is in contact with the logistic agent in order to draw up a plan for the towing of the ship," the navy said in a statement.
"So far, no source of pollution has been recorded."
According to Handelsblatt, an internal email from Volkswagen USA stated that the ship was carrying 3,965 vehicles of the VW, Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini brands.
Volkswagen did not confirm the number of cars on board, but Porsche said it had about 1,100 of its models on the ship.
The company said it was "aware of an incident involving a third-party cargo ship transporting Volkswagen Group vehicles across the Atlantic".
Bentley confirmed that 189 of its cars were also onboard the ship.
"We are working with the shipping company to find out further information," said a spokesman.
The ship was travelling to a Volkswagen factory in Davisville, Rhode Island, according to the website Marine Traffic.
One customer tweeted to say his Porsche was on board the abandoned ship.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60429584
Meanwhile I very much doubt that you will see Roger Harrabin reporting on this either!
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February 21, 2022 at 04:27AM
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