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Electric Cars Are Making Burning Cargo Ship Rescue More Difficult

It is not often that cargo ships catch fire in the middle of the ocean. That was the unfortunate fate of Felicity Ace, a 200-meter-long (656-foot-long) vessel that was carrying 3,965 cars from the Volkswagen group to the U.S. While we still don’t know what caused the fire, the Portuguese Navy disclosed that EVs are making the rescue more difficult.
Electric cars inside Felicity Ace are making it harder to control the fire 7 photos
Photo: Marinha Portuguesa (Portuguese Navy)
Electric cars inside Felicity Ace are making it harder to control the fireElectric cars inside Felicity Ace are making it harder to control the fireElectric cars inside Felicity Ace are making it harder to control the fireElectric cars inside Felicity Ace are making it harder to control the fireElectric cars inside Felicity Ace are making it harder to control the fireElectric cars inside Felicity Ace are making it harder to control the fire
Reuters interviewed captain João Mendes Cabeças, from the port of Hortas, Azores. According to the Portuguese military, the electric cars aboard are also on fire. When that happens, the blaze is more difficult to put down because the battery chemistry uses oxides, which release oxygen when they burn. In other words, it does not need the oxygen from outside to keep burning. Cabeças said they required specialist equipment to kill the fire.

The Verge managed to confirm that there are Audi e-tron and Audi e-tron Sportback units in the ship. However, it was sure also to contain Porsche Taycans and some plug-in hybrids – there are around 1,100 Porsches inside the vessel. Volkswagen ID.4s and Q4 e-tron units may also be included there. Reuters said that it was not clear if the fire started from the batteries, although that will demand an investigation to rule that possibility out.

Cabeças said that everything 5 m (16.4 feet) above the water line is on fire at the cargo ship at the moment. It is “burning from one end to the other,” which makes any hope to recover cars from the blaze a really remote possibility. According to Reuters, the Felicity Ace also contains 189 Bentleys.

The effort now is to tow Felicity Ace to a port. Towing boats coming from Gibraltar and the Netherlands should rescue the cargo ship by February 23. The cargo ship cannot go to the Azores because the large vessel would block the port. It is not clear yet where the Felicity Ace will be towed. However, the Azores are close to Portugal, making this country one of the possible destinations.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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