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Chaos on the high seas: Burning ship carrying electric cars exposes risks from lithium batteries and leaves victims on board!
The cargo ship Fremantle Hwy caught fire after leaving Bremerhaven, Germany. The Coast Guard suspects that the fire on the vessel arose from one of the lithium batteries in one of the 25 electric vehicles the ship carried. Although the crew tried to contain the fire, it quickly spread, rendering their efforts futile.
Around 350 of the vehicles on board were Mercedes-Benz
One crew member died, while others suffered from smoke inhalation. or were injured during the evacuation. A total of 23 crew members were on board the cargo ship, which is now abandoned. A Mercedes-Benz confirmed to the American site Automotive News that approximately 350 of the cars on board the ship were branded, adding that the company was in contact with the transport provider.
The fire, caused by Lithium battery of electric cars, is currently happening in the forward section of the ship, which is tipping her, and it is feared that she will sink. The fire crews that arrived at the scene were unable to board the ship due to the flames. In this way, fireboats were used to fight the fire and cool the ship.
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Rescuers attached a cable to prevent the ship from floating and blocking important shipping lanes. According to a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard, the fire could last for a few days and specifies that the rescue team in charge of putting out the fire cannot yet complete the action because the cargo ship is not stabilized.
The ship fires about 27 km north of the Dutch island of Ameland
In order for the fire, generated by the lithium batteries of electric vehicles, to be contained, it will be necessary to take people on board and put out the fire. This means they will have to carry water onto the ship, which means more risk, the spokeswoman said, adding that at the moment water was sprayed on the vessel's flanks to cool it down. Emergency crews received a call shortly after midnight (local time) reporting the fire on the Fremantle Highway, about 27 km north of the Dutch island of Ameland.
A spokesman for the mayor of Ameland Island, Leo Pieter Stoel, says he fears serious damage to the environment if the ship with the 25 electric cars sinks. It is the great fear of the islands, that something happens in one of the navigation channels that could harm the environment.
The Fremantle Highway is a car transport vessel with a capacity of 18.500 tons of cargo that sailed between Bremerhaven, Germany, and Port Said, Egypt, according to the marine traffic monitoring website Marinetraffic.com.
Other incidents with ships carrying electric vehicles
This isn't the first car carrier fire, and it certainly won't be the last. On February 16 last year, a fire broke out on board the Felicity Ace, a cargo ship with 4 cars, including about 300 electric cars.
The ship burned until there was nothing left to burn and sank two weeks later. The tragedy of this ship was considered a trigger for important changes in the shipping industry to avoid other tragedies like this one. However, this did not prevent another fire on the freighter Fremantle.
Electric vehicles are equipped with lithium-ion batteries. When this component catches fire, the oxides in the cells' chemistry cause them to generate oxygen, keeping the fire alive. Even if the fire doesn't originate in the battery itself, heat can cause Li-ion cells to self-ignite and spread from cell to cell and car to car.
