[Rhodes22-list] An Ongoing Lithium Battery Fire At Sea?

[Mark Whipple]

I agree that it's highly probable that there are EV vehicles with lithium
batteries among the nearly 4,000 vehicles on board, but it's a good bet
there are also many conventionally powered vehicles with gasoline in the
tanks. Once the rubber and plastic parts on any car ignite it can be
difficult to extinguish - especially if a number of vehicles become
enflamed. I'm going to guess it will be months or years before the causes
of the fire are identified and publicized - if the ship actually makes it
to a port to be examined.

Mark

Boston, MA

2000 R22 *Luna Mia*


On Mon, Feb 21, 2022 at 8:33 AM ROGER PIHLAJA <roger_pihlaja at msn.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Almost 6 days after the fire started, the M/V Felicity Ace is still
> ablaze, unmanned, and adrift in the Atlantic Ocean.  Lithium battery fires
> burn much hotter vs “ordinary” hydrocarbon fires.  In the attached picture,
> you can see a fire fighting ship attempting to cool the hull by spraying
> water on it.  But, ~1/4 of the exterior steel skin, just aft of amidships,
> has been already been burned away leaving only the underlying steel
> substructure and you can see lots of other steel skin plating blackened and
> ready to fail.  Firefighters cannot go on board because of the heat and
> toxic fumes given off by the burning Lithium batteries.  All they can do is
> spray water on the outside of the ship in the hope of cooling it off.  The
> only way I can think of extinguishing this fire would be to pump massive
> amounts of dry chemical fire extinguishing media through out the ship and
> smother the flames.  Then, you might have to wait weeks for the whole mess
> to cool off.  I think they are rushing an ocean tug to the scene.  But, the
> M/V Felicity Ace is too big to put in to any port in Azores Islands.  So,
> they would have to tow it someplace like Portugal?  There might be an issue
> getting any port to accept a burning ship!
>
> Frankly, it’s a miracle the fuel tanks haven’t gone up yet!
>
> With so much of the skin of the hull burned away, it’s only a matter of
> time before a storm swamps and sinks her.
>
> Remember, these are the supposedly “safer” batteries installed in EV’s.
> There are starting to be more and more media stories about the role of the
> Lithium batteries in this fire.
>
> [cid:image003.jpg at 01D826FD.9A2384B0]
>
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>
> Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows
>
> From: ROGER PIHLAJA<mailto:Roger_Pihlaja at msn.com>
> Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2022 8:12 AM
> To: The Rhodes 22 Email List<mailto:rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Subject: An Ongoing Lithium Battery Fire At Sea?
>
> Hi All,
>
> On February 10, 2022; the 656 ft LOA car carrier cargo ship, the M/V
> Felicity Ace, departed from Emden, Germany with a cargo of nearly 4000 new
> Porsches and VW’s.  The Felicity Ace was bound for Davisville, Rhode Island
> and was due to arrive on February 23, 2022.  On February 16th, the Felicity
> Ace sent out a distress signal after a fire broke out in the cargo hold.  A
> Portuguese navy patrol boat and 4 other merchant vessels responded to the
> distress call.  All 22 crew members have been rescued.  But, the vessel is
> still on fire and adrift in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores Islands.
> The M/V Felicity Ace was built in 2005 as a dedicated car carrier and has
> modern fire suppression systems.  The cause of the fire is still under
> investigation and there is little information available as yet.  But, there
> were certainly a large number of Lithium battery EV’s among the cargo.  No
> matter how the fire started, the fact that the onboard fire suppression
> systems have been unable to extinguish it is suspicious.  Hopefully, they
> will somehow get the fire under control before the vessel sinks or we may
> never find out what happened.
>
> Stay tuned, this could turn into a major Lithium battery EV safety scandal!
>
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>
> Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows
>
>
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