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The fire allegedly started near an electric vehicle.
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The cargo ship Fremantle Highway caught fire around midnight Tuesday evening off the Netherlands’ coast. It was carrying nearly 3,000 cars. The ship was heading from Germany to Egypt when the fire started, allegedly igniting near an unspecified electric vehicle.
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The crew attempted to extinguish the fire but failed. Seven members had to jump overboard to escape the quickly spreading flame.
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Several were injured, suffering burns, broken bones, and breathing problems, and one crew member died in the blaze. Rescuers have removed all 23 crew members from the ship.
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the ship was carrying 2,857 cars, 25 of which were electric vehicles. Mercedes-Benz said that it had about 350 cars on board.
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The incident forced Lamborghini to restart Aventador production to replace the destroyed supercars.
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Originally Posted by volkman10
(Post 5592736)
The fire allegedly started near an electric vehicle.
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That is just a rumour started by biased media, Electrek did some fact finding and no one involved in the incident or rescue said it started near an EV. You get more clicks when adding an EV to the story.
Norway authorities say the ratio of EV car fires to total EV cars on the road are lower than the ratio of ICE cars fires to total ICE cars on road.
https://electrek.co/2023/07/26/surpr...rgo-ship-fire/
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This is not the first fire on a car carrier and will certainly not be the last. On February 16, 2022, a fire broke onboard Felicity Ace, a cargo ship with 4,000 cars, including about 300 EVs. The vessel burnt until there was nothing left to burn and sank two weeks later. The Felicity Ace tragedy was considered a trigger for significant changes in the shipping industry to prevent such tragedies. Still, this did not prevent another fire on the Fremantle Highway cargo ship.
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In the wake of the Felicity Ace disaster, several shipping companies announced they would not transport electric vehicles anymore. This went as far as banning EVs from ferries in Norway, an extreme measure considering the high EV penetration and that some islands in the region are only accessible by ferry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmfH...wachtNederland Link
Another point of note from the linked article.
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The Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said in a social media post the fire had "resulted in the death of an Indian seafarer and injuries to the crew", and that it was in touch with family of the deceased. Japan's Shoei Kisen, which owns the ship, said the entire crew of 21 was Indian.
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1. No one knows the cause of fire in Felicity Ace, don't know the reason for emphasis on "300 EVs".
2. There is only one norwegian ferry company which banned EVs, Hybrids and Hydrogen cars. I just checked their website, their ships can carry only 9 cars. Most tourists travel without their cars onboard anyway. According to this ferry company, their ships have the largest battery packs, and can travel for 4 hours in EV mode in the fjords, without harming the ecology of fjords.
I am just saying the cause of fire in both cases can be an EV or an ICE car.
Source:
https://www.9news.com.au/world/ship-...2-2030030a7e1f
Cars and vehicles have been carried on vessels called "Car Carriers" and "Ro-Ro" since many decades. However what's changed now is that many of these cars are EV's which pose a great danger to the ships that they are carried it. They are a mix of combustible materials (mostly plastic), with inherent ignition sources. Now we have a very specific risk that Li-ion battery EVs pose when carried at sea in the same manner as all vehicles.
If EVs are not adequately lashed and a vessel encounters bad weather, the cars can become loose, have an impact, and cause a fire. A single vehicle fire could prove catastrophic and impossible for the limited number of crew to extinguish.
Unfortunately, some of the basic and widely relied upon fire safety principles are not available for Li-ion battery EV fires. There is no effective or practicable potential for early detection, warning, or fire suppression. There is, currently, no effective and capable fixed and portable fire fighting system for such fires. Even a modern, full-time, public fire service is unable to control a Li-ion EV fire in any timely manner. In short, at present, no ship’s system or crew nor any port or public fire service is capable of dealing effectively with the risk aboard. Aware of the rising risks from EV fires, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) issued a paper in June 2022 in which it said that fire fighting equipment and measures in existing ships carrying cars needed to be reassessed.
The following are all potential risk scenarios that could arise when transporting EVs:
1. Battery fire during on-board charging of the EV.
2. Battery fire due to increase in temperature from a fire in the surrounding area.
3. Battery fire after an accidental impact during cargo operation or vessel movement in bad weather.
4. Fire or explosion due to the escape of hydrogen from the fuel cell hydrogen pressure tank resulting from fire in the lower deck or surrounding area
5. Battery runaway due to an internal short circuit resulting from an impact, or poor battery quality leading to fire when the battery internal safety mechanisms stop working
In addition, a lithium-ion battery exposed to temperatures above 150 °C from a surrounding fire might start to discharge toxic gases with possible ignition.
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Over recent years there have been numerous fires on vehicle carriers, some of which have been attributed to faults in the vehicles being carried onboard. The outcome of these vehicle carrier fires have, in the main, been significant. We have summarised a few of these incidents below.
On the MV Honor in February 2017, a fire in the upper vehicle deck was attributed to a fault in the starter motor solenoid in one of the vehicles being transported. The fire led to extensive damage to the Honor’s vehicle decks as well as its cargo of about 5,000 vehicles.
In May 2018, a fire started on the 11th deck of the Auto Banner. The fire was alleged to have been caused by the over-heating of one of the used vehicles on board. The fire was cooled by helicopters dropping water from the air and more than 40 fire engines spraying the hull. The entire crew of 28 were safely evacuated without any reported injuries.
Grande America suffered a fire in March 2018 and subsequently developed a starboard list, causing it to capsize and sink in a depth of around 4,600 metres. The resulting oil spill stretched for 10km and the ship was carrying 2,000 cars and 365 containers, of which 45 were deemed to hold hazardous substances.
Sincerity Ace caught fire in the Pacific on New Year’s Eve 2018 with more than 3,500 cars onboard. The crew had to abandon the vessel, and whilst 16 crew were rescued, five tragically died as a result of the incident.
In June 2019, Diamond Highway had to be abandoned by its crew in the South China Sea, due to fire, whilst carrying 6,354 cars. Thankfully, all 25 crew were rescued.
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Source:
https://safety4sea.com/car-carrier-f...ransportation/
MOL, which operates one of the world’s largest car carrier fleets, suffered this year’s largest shipping casualty to date in dollar terms when its 6,400 ceu vessel, Felicity Ace, caught fire and eventually sank off the Azores five weeks ago with losses, according to law firm Vinson & Elkins, in the region of $500m. The casualty was the fourth big car carrier blaze involving EVs since 2019.
The bottom line is that at present we still do not have proper systems on board for carriage of EV's.
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Originally Posted by SKC-auto
(Post 5592935)
That is just a rumour started by biased media, Electrek did some fact finding and no one involved in the incident or rescue said it started near an EV.
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Sorry, but I don’t completely agree with this statement. They might be right in throwing their point of view across. However, starting of the fire will be a debatable thing as of now, till fact findings or investigation report is out. In this case it’s a conflict of interest and I will take their version as a pinch of salt, since their business depends on dealing with batteries and affiliate links to various EV manufacturers.
However, I have few observations, based on my experiences with hydrocarbon fires, totally based on the "Pictures" I have seen.
1) You can almost negate it’s a hydrocarbon fire. The nature of hydrocarbon fire will be red fire with black plume of smoke.
2) If you observe the color of the smoke from the ship, its greyish white. Seems the fire is from the combustible electrolyte which burns white and graphite which burn greyish in the LI batteries. It can be possible fire started somewhere else, but engulfed the EV's batteries.
3) In both the incidents, this one and the Felicity Ace, notice the color of the smoke. Its greyish white.
In our O&G industry we trust on NFPA reports/comments in case of the fires. This is what they have to say on Felicity Ace. Link Below;
https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Resear...s/EV-Ship-Fire
Also, Find the link which is a comprehensive study on EV’s Fire.
https://www.evfiresafe.com/
It's One of the main reason, I'm not jumping on the EV's bandwagon at the moment.
Pictures are internet Grabs.
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Originally Posted by NomadSK
(Post 5593181)
Sorry, but I don’t completely agree with this statement.
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How can telling the truth that nobody confirmed that the fire started from EVs is conflict of interest?
I am no fire expert, but how does by looking at the white smoke one can confirm it's not from ICE cars? I mean there's lots of interior trim on each car which can give white smoke.
Did the fire start from an EV? We don't know.
Did the EVs also burnt in the ship? May be
Extinguishing EV fire is difficult? Yes
Do EVs catch fire more often than ICE cars? No
As @ruzbehxyz has pointed to MV Honor, where the cause of fire seems to be from an ICE car.
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It's One of the main reason, I'm not jumping on the EV's bandwagon at the moment.
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Thats your personal decision, as I have already posted above Norway emergency services report shows there are less EV fires than ICE fires. It's difficult to extinguish an EV fire but they burn slowly and the chances of escaping from the car are higher in an EV than an ICE car.
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Originally Posted by SKC-auto
(Post 5593347)
How can telling the truth that nobody confirmed that the fire started from EVs is conflict of interest?
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Sir, As I said in my post, "I will take their statement as pinch of salt". How do you ensure they are speaking the truth, since their business revolves around EV's and Batteries. Will anyone speak ill about their business ?
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Originally Posted by SKC-auto
(Post 5593347)
I am no fire expert, but how does by looking at the white smoke one can confirm it's not from ICE cars? I mean there's lots of interior trim on each car which can give white smoke.
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Interior trim in cars or for that matter most of the products inside the car comes under hydrocarbon fires, even inorganic paints. They are all by-product of crude.
Different elements burn with different colors of flame and the emanating smoke from them gives an indication what kind of fuel is burning. Fire fighters know this better and plan their firefighting accordingly. Like battery fires do release toxic fumes too, so that can plan for it.
Lithium is a very reactive alkali material. Lithium Batteries are at risk of burning and even exploding in extreme cases, they genreally work within a range of lower and maximum temperature. Chemical fires are more dangerous than hydrocarbon fires. At times you dont even need oxygen for certain chemical fires to take place, all it needs a strong oxidizing agent instead of oxygen in the fire triangle.
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Originally Posted by SKC-auto
(Post 5593347)
Thats your personal decision, as I have already posted above Norway emergency services report shows there are less EV fires than ICE fires. It's difficult to extinguish an EV fire but they burn slowly and the chances of escaping from the car are higher in an EV than an ICE car.
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Sorry Sir, but here you are off target and comparing statistics with chemistry. Here I'm not debating on EV fires or ICE fires, or even pin pointing at the cause. All I want to say that fires related to hydrocarbons are well engineered over a period of time (100 years or so) and Fires related to the battery is completely new phenomenon (too many unknowns, even as you agreed it's tough to firefight the battery fire) and I won’t be trusting Chinese made batteries so easily.
Unable to contain the fire, the cargo ship off Dutch coast is still raging.
- The vessel, which has about 3,000 vehicles on board, has been burning since Tuesday
- The vessel had been carrying significantly more electric vehicles than initially reported.
- The 656-foot vessel was carrying about 3,000 vehicles, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said on Friday that while he could not confirm an exact number, it was probably in the hundreds.
-The Dutch newswire ANP reported that there were
498 electric vehicles on board, citing the ship charter company K Line.
- It still was not safe to bring a salvage team onto the ship.
-The burning ship is close to the Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage site off Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands that the United Nations has described as the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world.
- There is no reported oil pollution due to this incident.
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Originally Posted by SKC-auto
(Post 5593083)
1. No one knows the cause of fire in Felicity Ace, don't know the reason for emphasis on "300 EVs". Attachment 2482337
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I work on car carrier ships as an engineer and would like to shed some light here . Initial fact finding confirmed that the fire originated on the deck carrying Porsche Taycans. The fire was so bad that it melted the fixed fire fighting system onboard, rendering it useless. Our training tells us that no onboard fire fighting systems can fight a lithium battery fire, best option being to let it die on it's own while supplementing it with DCP.
Also, This being linked to VW group, there was a complete information blackout post a few days with the ship sinking soon after. This raised many eyebrows asthe vessel was perfectly sea worthy as per initial investigations and was being towed to port for a detailed investigation. I leave you to draw your conclusions from this.
My heart goes out to the deceased seafarer and his family. There is an urgent need to come up with an internationally binding SOP for Car carrier ships carrying EVs.
Dutch ministry says a fire that blazed for nearly a week on a cargo ship appears to have burnt out.
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Photos released Monday by the Netherlands coast guard appeared to show no smoke billowing out of the ship, which is anchored 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the Dutch islands of Schiermonnikoog and Ameland while authorities decide which port it will be towed to for the next stage of the complex salvage operation.
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The Fremantle Highway, carrying 3,783 new vehicles, including 498 electric ones, from the German port city of Bremerhaven to Singapore had been ablaze since late on July 25. Firefighters decided not to douse the flames with water for fear of making the nearly 200-meter (around 650-foot) ship unstable as it floated close to North Sea shipping lanes and a world-renowned migratory bird habitat.
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The recovery companies are working on a plan of action for towing the freighter to its final location and salvaging it
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Link
Fire-damaged cargo ship towed into Dutch port.
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no question of any outflow of liquids or other matter.
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The ship is expected to remain at the port until October while salvage operations are carried out and the cars are removed.
The freighter was carrying 3,783 new cars, including 498 electric vehicles, K Line said.
They included BMWs, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini brands, with the total loss likely to exceed €300 million ($328m).
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Initial investigations show the fire is apparently not caused by EV. This is what I was saying in my posts above, don't jump to conclusions before the investigation, but we were so quick to blame EVs.
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After the deadly car freighter fire on the North Sea, which cost millions, they were long branded as guilty: E-cars should have kindled the fatal fire, it was quickly speculated . The Coast Guard initially suspected that.
But now the tide seems to be turning: initial findings suggest that electric cars were probably not the cause of the fire! There were also VW vehicles on board the fire freighter "Fremantle Highway" .
The previous investigations on board the mega freighter have shown that the approximately 500 loaded electric cars are "in good condition" and "completely mobile", reports the industry portal "Automotive Logistics" with reference to the Dutch media. Means: It is likely that no electric car caused the fire.
The experts started last week in the Dutch port of Eemshaven to get the almost 3,800 vehicles off the burned-out "Fremantle Highway". Most of them are said to have been destroyed by the fire, around 2,700 could no longer be saved, it was said.started last week in the Dutch port of Eemshaven to get the almost 3,800 vehicles off the burned-out "Fremantle Highway". Most of them are said to have been destroyed by the fire, around 2,700 could no longer be saved, it was said.
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https://www.news38.de/wolfsburg/vw/a...he-news-b.html Quote:
Following the initial inspection of the vessel, the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) said that focus must be put on identifying risks and safety measures related to EVs and how they can be mitigated. It stressed that to date, “no fire onboard a ro-ro or PCTC has been proven to have been caused by a factory-new EV”.
The Union is also involved in an international research project aiming to significantly reduce the risk of fires on board ro-ro vessels, known as Lash Fire. Its research found that EV fires are not more common or more intense than ICE fires, and that the toxins released in fires of both types of vehicles were similar, with most of the energy for the fire coming from the plastics and materials in the car rather than the battery itself. The danger however is the risk of thermal runaway that can be caused when batteries are exposed to fire, which is difficult to stop.
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https://www.automotivelogistics.medi.../44559.article
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