The Felicity Ace on fire
LISBON, Feb 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A ship carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys, 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 said on Friday.
Lithium-ion batteries in the electric cars on board the Felicity Ace have caught fire and the blaze requires specialist equipment to extinguish, captain Joao Mendes Cabecas of the port of Hortas said.
It was not clear whether the batteries first sparked the fire.
“The ship is burning from one end to the other … everything is on fire about five meters above the water line,” Cabeças said.
The fire broke out in the cargo hold of the ship when it was about 200 miles from Terceira Island in the Azores, a Portuguese island territory. Portuguese forces on Wednesday evacuated the crew soon after the fire broke out.
The rescue operation, involving a chopper, was a “highly skilled and physically demanding” one, the authorities said. The rescued crew members were taken to the nearby Portuguese island of Faial.
Towing boats were on route from Gibraltar and the Netherlands, Cabecas said. He added the vessel could not be towed to the Azores because it was so big it would block trade at the port.
A 16-person salvage team from Smit Salvage, owned by Dutch marine engineer Boskalis, was sent to the ship to help control the flames, Boskalis said.
The Panama-flagged ship, owned by Snowscape Car Carriers SA and managed by Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd, was travelling from Emden, Germany – where Volkswagen has a factory – to Davisville in the United States, based on the Maritime Traffic website.
The 22 crew members on board were evacuated on Wednesday when the fire broke out, with no one hurt, Portugal’s navy said in a statement.
Around 1,100 Porsches and 189 Bentleys were on board, spokespeople for the car brands said. Audi, another Volkswagen brand, confirmed some of its vehicles were also on the ship but did not state how many.
Volkswagen did not confirm the total number of cars on board and said it was awaiting further information. — NNN-AGENCIES
