Electric car sets huge cargo ship on fire

By Romegas

Several media outlets including the Daily Mail have reported that at least one crew member has died and several others were injured overnight after a fire ripped through a car carrier ship off the Dutch coast, with an electric car believed to be the cause. Officials have said there are ‘many’ wounded.

As of midday, the ship was said to be burning out of control in the North Sea and rescue vessels were working to save it from sinking close to an important habitat.

‘The crew tried to put out the fire themselves, but failed. Unfortunately one person died and several others were injured.‘

All crew were evacuated to the nearby Dutch port of Lauwersoog after failing to extinguish the blaze on the vast ship bound for Egypt.

Officials added that the Fremantle Highway was still on fire, and emergency services are present near the blazing ship. ‘The blaze is still raging on board,’ the coastguard said, adding that the ship was listing.

It is carrying cars, 2,857 of which 25 are electrical cars, which made the fire even more difficult.

In 2022, a fire-ravaged US-bound cargo ship that was transporting thousands of supercars including Porsches sunk in the middle of the Atlantic.

The Felicity Ace sank about 250 miles off Portugal’s Azores Islands as it was being towed, just 13 days after a fire broke out on board.

The ship was transporting electric and non-electric vehicles, it was reported at the time. Suspicion fell on lithium batteries used in electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles with lithium batteries are notoriously difficult if not near impossible to extinguish. Indeed due to this fact and other risks they pose, certain underground car parks abroad (such as in Germany) have banned Electric Vehicles altogether.

One wonders how prepared the Maltese authorities are in the face of such an eventuality, the likelihood of which increases with every new EV and hybrid vehicle on our roads and in our car parks.

Gauging from the lack of proactivity so prevalent in our country, it will probably take a holocaust and the incineration of a few unfortunate souls before we start taking the matter seriously.