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

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

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

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