Ro-ro packed with luxury cars ablaze
Firefighters are blaming the batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) for prolonging their battle to extinguish a fire that has broken out on a vessel carrying thousands of luxury cars.
The Felicity Ace was carrying about 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis, Lamborghinis and Bentleys, but is now adrift off the coast of the Azores in Portugal following the blaze on February 16.
The pure car and truck carrier, operated by Mitsui OSK Lines, was sailing from Germany to the United States when the drama began and its 22-member crew have all been evacuated.
It was carrying a shipment of vehicles from the Volkswagen Group, which has not confirmed the number of cars on board. However, Porsche and Bentley said they had 1,100 and 189 models respectively on the roll-on, roll-off vessel.
The stricken ship is now adrift and João Mendes Cabeças, captain of the nearest port in the Azorean island of Faial, told Reuters that putting out the blaze “has to be done very slowly”.
He explains lithium-ion batteries in the EVs on board are “keeping the fire alive” and specialist equipment to extinguish it was on the way and expected to arrive on February 23.
Teams battling the flames cannot use water because adding weight to the ship could make it more unstable, and traditional water extinguishers do not stop lithium-ion batteries from burning, Cabeças adds.
It was not clear whether the batteries sparked the fire on the Panama-flagged ship.
Portugal’s navy says Mitsui OSK Lines is in contact with the logistic agent in order to draw up a plan for the towing of the ship, which is expected to eventually be taken to a country in Europe or to the Bahamas.
