A Mitsui OSK Lines car carrier severely damaged by a cargo blaze in the Atlantic is being towed to a place of refuge near the Azores.
MOL said salvage crew have now boarded the 6,400-ceu Felicity Ace (built 2005) by helicopter, and it is being towed to a “safe place” in the Azores by the large salvage vessel, Bear.
MOL said the vessel is in “stable condition” and that smoke from the fire can no longer be seen, which suggests it has died down.
There were concerns that a number of lithium-ion battery-powered cars aboard the ship would keep the blaze going.
London-based law firm Watson Farley and Williams recently warned just before the Felicity Ace fire that the sea transportation of electrical vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries could result in more intense fires that require different firefighting techniques.
“Electrical vehicles [EV] might not seem to be any more inherently dangerous than their internal combustion engine [ICE] cousins,” the law firm wrote.
“The world’s firefighting services, however, are finding that may not be the case when one of these vehicles catches fire. The component materials of the batteries mean that the fires are very energetic and traditional firefighting techniques do not necessarily work.
“Although it is not clear whether EVs are more likely than ICE vehicles to catch fire, it is common ground that the consequences are potentially more disastrous and more difficult to handle.”
The firefighting tug VB Hispanic is in attendance along with the tugs ALP Guard and Dian Kingdom.
MOL said no oil pollution has been caused by the fire and it is cooperating with local authorities in the Azores to “find an early solution to the incident”.
MOL’s Felicity Ace was carrying around 4,000 luxury cars made up of Porches, Bentleys and Lamborghinis — valued at more than $300m — when it caught fire as it headed for the US west coast from Emden, Germany.
All 22 crew were forced to abandon the vessel, leaving it to drift in the Atlantic around 90 miles (145 km) south-west of the Azores.
Dutch salvage company Smit has been appointed salvor under a Lloyd’s Open Form contract.
The Felicity Ace’s protection and indemnity cover is placed with the Britannia P&I club.
