Thousands of Porsche and VW's up in flames at sea

[Johnny_E]

BBC News link: Luxury cars up in smoke after ship catches fire

Looks like the VAG Group is in for the insurance claim of a lifetime! Reason I'm putting this in the EV forum - there's almost 4000 cars on board but they've had to abandon the ship to burn at sea. There's EV's on board and the li-ion batteries are causing havoc.

They don't yet know if the EVs caused the fire, but they're certainly making it a tough one to deal with.

More info here Firefighting boats struggle to subdue Felicity Ace fire

Tackling the fire from outside​

The fire is a complex one. It is currently too dangerous for firefighters to go on board the ship so they are tackling it from outside by attempting to cool down its structure.

Furthermore, as water extinguishers do not subdue fires from lithium-ion batteries, the firefighters cannot use them, complicating their tasks further. In addition, using water on the ship could result in more weight applied to it which could make it unstable.

Luckily, according to Cabeças, the fire is still far from the ship's fuel tanks. However, he did warn that the blaze was getting closer adding that "everything was on fire about five meters above the waterline."

Firefighters are now in a race against time, attempting to subdue the blaze before it reaches the ship's fuel tanks.

 

[quattro Rick]

I wonder will this spark a safety protocol wherein ice and electric vehicles are shipped separately due to the different methods of extinguishing fires like this.

No doubt it would increase the price, but that incident alone will no doubt cause a price spike

I wonder will the customers who have lost their cars be pushed to the front of the queue causing a further delay in delivery times. Chip shortages are about to be the least of the vag groups worries.


Or is this incident and the incident at Western digital all a ploy wherein they pretend like an enormous batch of products went up in smoke to give themselves more time

 

[Johnny_E]

The ship was heading to the USA from Germany so Indeed, rushing to resupply the USA market is going to cause EU and UK delays for sure. More fuel for this price bubble!

 

[Coog]

Even beyond shipping... What happens if an EV goes up in flames in a multi-storey carpark or one of those car parks under an apartment block or whatever. They burn very differently than an ICE and presumably all these buildings were designed to withstand several ICE cars going up in flames, not EVs.

Imagine an EV burning in the driveway at your house too. It’s a wonder insurance companies aren’t starting to ask about them.

Even if they’re less likely to start a fire than ICE, it only takes an ICE to go up in flames nearby to cause problems.

Also wonder if emergency services are adequately equipped to deal with them also.

 

[Wild Thing]

Looking on the flip side how would a hydrogen based car fair out. Now i know the first thing you think of is the hindenburg airship, but hydrogen tech is totally different in the 21st century

 

[avsd]

Some data on Telsa files Tesla Fire: Digital record of Tesla fire incidents

Small percentage of total sales. Not picking on Telsa, just stats are easy to find.

Looking on the flip side how would a hydrogen based car fair out. Now i know the first thing you think of is the hindenburg airship, but hydrogen tech is totally different in the 21st century

On a ship the amount of hydrogen in tank would be limited. In normal use tunnel crashes/fires are a big research area due to the safety concerns. Ulster University have a team working on this.

 

[Boydie]

Even beyond shipping... What happens if an EV goes up in flames in a multi-storey carpark or one of those car parks under an apartment block or whatever. They burn very differently than an ICE and presumably all these buildings were designed to withstand several ICE cars going up in flames, not EVs.

Imagine an EV burning in the driveway at your house too. It’s a wonder insurance companies aren’t starting to ask about them.

Even if they’re less likely to start a fire than ICE, it only takes an ICE to go up in flames nearby to cause problems.

Also wonder if emergency services are adequately equipped to deal with them also.

Your comment brought me back to Fire and Ice shows in Aghadowey lol

Looking on the flip side how would a hydrogen based car fair out. Now i know the first thing you think of is the hindenburg airship, but hydrogen tech is totally different in the 21st century

I know in the buses there are numerous pressure and leak sensors as well as an on board fire suppression system - dont know if a car would have a system like it though

 

[RallyCiaran]

Looking on the flip side how would a hydrogen based car fair out. Now i know the first thing you think of is the hindenburg airship, but hydrogen tech is totally different in the 21st century

We wont need to worry about hydrogen cars for a long time yet, they are still decades away from being mainstream.

 

[salster]

Towing operation begins for cargo ship filled with Porsches after catching alight in the Atlantic

Recovery mission for the 60,000-tonne Felicity Ace marks end to fire saga

uk.yahoo.com

 

[southsky sunrise]

Il get the trucks to the dock

 

[salster]

Massive cargo ship carrying cars sinks in mid-Atlantic

A large cargo vessel carrying cars from Germany to the United States has sunk in the mid-Atlantic nearly two weeks after a fire broke out on board

uk.yahoo.com

no point getting the trucks to the dock now southsky sunrise, the boat has sunk.

 

[Ghisallo]

Ship’s sunk, soon the vehicles will be turbot charged

 

[Jaystar77]

Least the fires out..

 

[redxl77]

Putting quick releases and line cutting equipment to one side for a moment, it would be pretty hairy for those towing to see the towed vessel start to list and sink...

 

[Johnny_E]

Wouldn't it just.... Look at the weight of it....

 

[gpaevo]

Also wonder if emergency services are adequately equipped to deal with them also.

Nope, in absolutely no way whatsoever

We wont need to worry about hydrogen cars for a long time yet, they are still decades away from being mainstream.

Hydrogen buses are mainstream now.

University of Ulster in Belfast are Europe leaders into hydrogen vehicles and are advising EU (not us) emergency services on the subject.