Last Wednesday, some crew members of the car carrier Felicity Age noticed a plume of smoke from the hold. The ship was en route from Europe to Davesville in the United States and was off the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The hold was fully loaded with 4,000 VW Group cars, including 1,100 Porsches and 189 luxury Bentleys. The 22 crew members quickly realized that extinguishing was impossible and left the ship. They were picked up by a tanker sailing nearby. The crew was then flown by helicopter to the Azores by the Portuguese Navy.
Six days after fire broke out on the ship, the fire is still raging. This is due to the large amount of electric cars on board – including ID3s, e-Trons and electric Porsches. If a large lithium-ion battery catches fire, it is very difficult to extinguish. Normally, the fire brigade submerges a burning electric car in a container of water. That’s impossible if the car is on a ship in the middle of the ocean, and in a spacious bumper to bumper with other electric cars burning.
Spontaneous ignition
It is not yet known what caused the fire. There is a real chance that it is an electric car that spontaneously caught fire. A week and a half ago, an ID3 flew into the parking garage of the building where The standard house, on fire.