# A Brief Look Back at Recent Car Carrier Fires **URL:** \ **Category:** Marine Safety\ **Created:** [August 5, 2023, 11:06am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/a-brief-look-back-at-recent-car-carrier-fires/66793 "2023-08-05T11:06:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2023, 11:06am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/a-brief-look-back-at-recent-car-carrier-fires/66793/1 "2023-08-05T11:06:41Z")
A summary of some recent car carrier fires. - EVs may have broken current car ship design as far as insurance losses > **[A Brief Look Back at Recent Car Carrier Fires](https://gcaptain.com/a-brief-look-back-at-recent-car-carrier-fires/)** > > The fire on the car carrier Fremantle Highway in the North Sea is just the latest in a long and ever-growing list of fires involving vehicles on roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) vessels.... Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping)@mercoglianos has a good video here; [![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/3X/a/7/a7814dc031f8bceab5f16802789aca279820a4b4.jpeg "Recent Car Carrier Fires | Fremantle Highway | Grande Costa d'Avorio | Felicity Ace | Hoegh Xiamen") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUTiJsoFNgE) Sal Mercogliano mentions the firefighting zones - here’s a diagram of Courage from a [NTSB report](https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/MAB1724.pdf) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/3X/9/b/9b47078c501ebce113832eb21a501a4254d7a977.png) Below the freeboard deck the zones are divided by a watertight / gastight bulkheads. Above the freeboard deck the divisions are by gastight decks. Mercogliano suggests dividing the upper decks into more smaller horizontal zones, same as below the waterline. ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 11:34am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/a-brief-look-back-at-recent-car-carrier-fires/66793/2 "2023-08-06T11:34:18Z")
The first comment on YouTube is interesting: ### [@tomshiba51](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiDOBFUc6xMliiaklpKR0UA) [2 days ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUTiJsoFNgE&lc=UgwWwLPL17bIdzYk6V94AaABAg) > I was aboard the MV Tellus in June, 2001, en-route to Europe. Three days out of Charleston, SC, the fire alarm sounded. I, and a fellow U.S. Army soldier took our station on the bridge (as we were considered passengers and our mission was to escort 20 M-1 tanks to Bremerhaven, Germany (our final destination)). We watched as the whole crew fought the fire centered on the port quarter, first level down. It took some time, but the fire was taken under control. The next day, the third mate explained that we were very close to abandoning ship because the carbon dioxide system was not working as it should, and the chief engineer was on satellite phone back to United States asking the fire suppression experts what to do. He did get it working, thankfully, and we sailed directly to Bremerhaven, Germany where forensics determined that the fire was started by one vehicle. 125 vehicles either burned completely, or were smoke damaged. There’s some [selection bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias) going on with regards to the perception of the severity of the average car hold fire. The fires like the one on the M/V Tellus don’t get as widely reported in the news media as much as the big fires do. That said, the difficulty in controlling and putting out an EV fire has evidently changed the situation ---
**Author:** ![ombugge](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/ombugge/32/11217_2.png) [@ombugge](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/ombugge)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/a-brief-look-back-at-recent-car-carrier-fires/66793/3 "2024-03-06T11:31:22Z")
One of the major PCTC fires of recent years is back in the news: > **[MOL and Allianz take Volkswagen to court over sinking of Felicity Ace car...](https://splash247.com/mol-and-allianz-take-volkswagen-to-court-over-sinking-of-felicity-ace-car-carrier/)** > > The shipowner of the Felicity Ace and its insurer have filed separate lawsuits in Germany against Volkswagen over the blaze and subsequent sinking of the car carrier. Mitsui OSK Lines and Allianz have identified what they believe to have been a... > [@](#): > > “The debate about EVs in the shipping industry is ongoing, with conversations about whether there is a need for dedicated roro vessels for EVs,” Allianz noted in the report. Anybody want to venture and opinion? ---
**Author:** ![Lew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lew](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Lew)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2024, 9:04am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/a-brief-look-back-at-recent-car-carrier-fires/66793/4 "2024-03-07T09:04:59Z")
Volkswagen (Porche) didn’t warn them of the risks Well I guess that is taken care of now.