More Shipping News – Was the Felicity Ace Fire Caused by an Electric Vehicle Battery? – Is it good?

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

h / t Devil’s Tower – What made Felicity Ace goods so flammable? “Not sure if [EV] the first battery to ignite”.

The aircraft carrier Felicity Ace continues to burn in the Mid-Atlantic – Photo

Reuters February 18, 2022

A rescue team from SMIT is on its way to the abandoned M/V Felicity Ace retreat, which continues to burn near the Azores.

BERLIN / LISBON, February 18 (Reuters) – A ship carrying about 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis and BentleysThe vessel that caught fire near the coast of the Azores will be towed to another European country or the Bahamas, the captain of the nearest port told Reuters on Friday.

Internal Lithium-ion battery Electric Car Captain Joao Mendes Cabecas of the port of Hortas said the aircraft carrier Felicity Ace was on fire and the fire needed specialized equipment to extinguish.

It is not clear whether the first batteries ignited.

Cabecas said: “The ship was on fire from one end to the other… everything was on fire about five meters above the waterline.

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Read more: https://gcaptain.com/felicity-ace-car-carrier-continues-to-burn-in-mid-atlantic/

We may never know if an electric vehicle started a fire, but even if that tram doesn’t start the fire, they are certainly making it difficult to put out. more. EV battery fires are chemically comparable to temperature fire, hot enough to melt steel, so there may not be much left to analyze by the time the ship’s flame eventually self-ignites.

This disaster could have real consequences for the electric vehicle market, both for the transportation of electric vehicles by sea or by land and for the consumer’s desire for a product that poses a serious fire hazard. so. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future, once insurance companies understand the danger, owning an electric vehicle could render your home unusable, unless you can prove it. Park away from your house.

At the very least, insurance companies can begin to require strict expiration dates on batteries. The risk can increase as the battery ages, although if the Felicity Ace flame is started with a new battery, you can never say that the hazard is zero.

The following video shows how devastating EV fires can be in a home environment – and this one is just an electric motorcycle. Car batteries are much larger. How much of your house will be left, how much time will you have to get to safety, if an electric car catches on fire in a garage or a built car port? EV fires are not constrained by lack of oxygen. The battery itself contains everything needed to start and maintain a deadly, white-hot flame that is virtually impossible to extinguish.