EVs Aboard Burning Cargo Ship are Giving Fire Crews a Hard Time

The Felicity Ace cargo ship, which caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean last week with nearly 4,000 U.S.-bound vehicles on board, continues to burn and is making the work of firefighters really difficult.

While all 22 crew members were quickly evacuated and no one was injured, it might be too late to save the 1,100 or so Porsches, 189 Bentleys, and hundreds of Volkswagen (Golf GTI, Golf R, Arteon, ID.4), Audi and Lamborghini models.

• Also: Hundreds of VW Group Vehicles Could be Lost in Cargo Ship Fire
• Also: Study: Hybrids Involved in More Fires Than EVs and Gas-Powered Vehicles

While the exact cause of the fire has yet to be identified, a report by Reuters claims that the lithium-ion batteries in the electric vehicles inside the ship are "keeping the fire alive” and dragging out the fire extinguishing operation.

"The intervention (to put out the blaze) has to be done very slowly," said João Mendes Cabeças, captain of the nearest port in the Azorean island of Faial, adding that specialist equipment was on the way.

According to him, the situation is still too dangerous for anyone to go on board, so teams can only fight the fire from outside by cooling the ship's structure. Also, they cannot use water because adding weight to the ship could make it more unstable, and traditional water extinguishers do not stop lithium-ion batteries from burning.

Should the fire keep spreading and reach the ship’s fuel lines or tanks, the consequences could be disastrous—not only for the automaker and customers awaiting delivery of their vehicles, of course, but also for the environment.

Reuters reports that the Felicity Ace will be towed to a country in Europe or to the Bahamas, though it is unclear when that will happen. It will take some more time to learn the true extent of the damage to the vehicles.