Car Carrier Felicity Ace blaze in the Atlantic:

In Norway >80% of new car sold (2021)were EVs and ALL new cars (incl. light vans) sold after 2025 have to be “Zero Emission”:

Many of the large car ferry fleet in use are already powered by NI batteries and liquid hydrogen ferries are coming soon:

Yet the rules for carriage of EVs on ferries in Norway is lagging behind, as this Master Thesis shows:(In Norwegian, but w/English Abstract on page 2)

Branner i elbiler på bil- og passasjerferger - NTNU Open

PS> IMO rules are also sorely lacking in specifics for EV transport on RoPax and RoRo vessels.

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First I’ve heard of fixed foam for cargo holds on car ships.

I remembered the Boeing 787 Dreamliner accident in 2013:
It was a first but due to the spreading use of these devices has gone a bit shadowed.
Anyway the issue “seems” aknowledged:

A DNV study from 2018 re: “Fires on RoRo decks” covers fires on both RoPax and Vehicle Carriers.:

FIRES ON RO-RO DECKS - MaritimeCyprus

https://maritimecyprus.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/roro-fire-on-deck_2016-04.pdf
It mention water mist system as an alternative system recently developed:

This has the advantages of causing less damages and risk of capsizing (Refr. al-Salam Boccaccio 98 fire & capsize) since less water is used.

Chapter 5 has refr. IMO rules for EVs:

I have no first hand experience with EVs, or their transport requirement, but it looks like it is getting a bit more attention than earlier, which is good since there will be a lot more such vehicles on the road (and transported on ferries and ships) in the future.

Yes; 14,000 liters of STHAMEX* ®- SV high expansion foam (900x expansion ratio) with mixing valves etc…
It is Kashiwa system as well.

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EV’s fire hazard must become paramount, I think, point is the site must be deprived of oxygen,
so any water based system doesn’t cope.

Not easy to put out:

Earl

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It seems the ship is still afloat with the fire extinguished. It was only deck house and superstructure affected.

So, it’s a challenge.
Heptafluoropropane or our ol’friend Halon must be proper weapons…
Shipping for sure needs a solution.

The problem, Jurgen, is that Lithium-Ion batteries supply their own oxygen when burning, which VERY HIGHLY complicates extinguishing them. In the case of the Felicity Ace, while the origin of the fire is unknown, the Lithium batteries are positively identified as a major problem in putting the fire out.
One has to assume that the onboard fire suppression system was triggered without effect, inducing the crew to abandon ship in the lifeboat.

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Agree… and it’s a bitter end.
Maybe industry has fault to learn on the Boeing accident in 2013,
at least no casualties in aviation has occurred since ( as I know )

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Yes the rules for the carriage of EVs seem to be lagging.

A lot of vessels will be carrying EVs when they have no way of extinguishing a Lithium-Ion battery fire.

Safety rules in the marine industry are often applied reactively and not proactively, so it will probably take a tragic accident for rules to come in to mitigate the risks of EV fires on ferries.

A ferry will will have an EV fire that they can’t extinguish and people will die, then they will bring in rules to prevent it happening again instead of bring in rules to prevent it happening in the first place.

A water mist system is a fire protection system which uses very fine water sprays (i.e. water mist). The small water droplets allow the water mist to control, suppress or extinguish fires by:cooling both the flame and surrounding gases by evaporation. displacing oxygen by evaporation .

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They also have a nasty habit of reigniting as much as 22 hours after being apparently extinguished.

Earl

It is an interesting, if expensive, experiment that is being conducted on board that vessel. This is to my knowledge the largest mass of lithium-ion battery material that has ever ignited. If I were a harbormaster I would not allow that ship in my port until it had been instrumented and demonstrated that it had sat outside stone cold and with all batteries fully discharged for at least two weeks and preferably a month. And even then I would be very hesitant to go on board or order somebody else to do so.

They are possibly seeing temperatures in exess of 1000 deg C inside the hold. Maybe this will affect the ship’s structure in a way that will lead to the problem solving itself. Another option, probably politically infeasible, would be to inquire if any navy in the area would care to expend a torpedo in a live-fire exercise.

Earl

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Let’s face it. The fire is out. Only the paint on the deck house/superstructure is damaged. No serious structural damages. Ship is floating.

Felicity Ace will be declared a constructive total loss. She will end up sitting someplace for a couple of years until all the claims are settled, then scrapped.

Looks like some Stockbrokers will have to wait a while for the new Lamborghini they ordered last year:

Or maybe only the paint is burnt on those too??

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From yesterday:

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