Why Do Electric Cars Sink Ships?

Some observations from myself as a Fire Engineer. 3:58 - this is called a backdraught - it is when a ventilation controlled fire (called a fire post flashover, where it have moved from fuel controlled to vent controlled) gains new air and causes a significant deflagration with associated temperature rise and pressure wave. 6:00 - most suppression foam actually doesn't remove heat or oxygen, what is does it is uses highly reactive substances (usually containing bromine or similar) to react with all the intermediate free-radical molecules in the combustion reaction. The oxygen stays, the heat stays, but the combustion reaction is halted through removal of the chain reaction caused by the free radicals. This is an explanation for why the "fire triangle" is too simplistic and many refer to a "fire pentagon".

I've help ship Tesla Megapacks for their recharge stations out to Hawaii before and basically the company told us that if one catches fire don't bother trying to put it out just abandon ship. Also as far as I'm aware no shipping company will take damaged Evs off the islands meaning that they're stuck there when they crash.

Do transport ships dream of electric cars?

I work in aviation and there is a huge focus on lithium battery fires. An uncontained fire is just about every pilot's worst nightmare so lots of extra training for us, and you'll hear lots of announcements like "if you notice your batteries are damaged or getting hot please contact the crew immediately". These are from portable electronic devices though, not an entire car, or multiple cars...

I hadn't realised the Felicity Ace had gone down. I worked on that ship a few times when it came to the Port of Tyne a few years ago, loading Nissans and discharging various other vehicles.

The best explanation I’ve heard as to how and why electric vehicle fires are hard to stop.

The title of the video is misleading since the NTSB investigation concluded - "The NTSB determined the probable cause of the fire aboard the Höegh Xiamen was Grimaldi Deep Sea’s (who time chartered the vessel) and SSA Atlantic’s (Grimaldi’s contractor for stevedores) ineffective oversight of longshoremen, which did not identify that Grimaldi’s vehicle battery securement procedures were not being followed. This resulted in an electrical fault from an improperly disconnected battery in a used vehicle on cargo deck 8. Contributing to the delay in the detection of the fire was the crew not immediately reactivating the vessel’s fire detection system after the completion of loading. Contributing to the extent of the fire was the master’s decision to delay the release of the carbon dioxide fixed fire extinguishing system.' In a recent incident in the UK, a fire at an airport multi-storey car park destroyed 1500 vehicles. The cause of the fire was determined to be a fault on a car with a diesel engine.

On the Northlink boats to Shetland we have had many discussions about what to do in the event an electric car catches fire. Since there is no standard way of dealing with it yet and no tools designed to help we made your own, which you can attach to a hose and slide it underneath the car to direct the water upwards towards the battery. Its just a few pipes with a few sprinkler heads attached securely to it directed upwards. Easy to use but never been tested and hopefully we never will need to.

I think the only real solution would be much smaller compartments that can be flooded if necessary. And even then you might need to think about how to vent steam pressure and add new water

The idea of having a fire alarm system that requires you to turn it off at a point in which your cargo is most likely to catch fire (Running cars) is such a fundamental flaw they should have never been allowed to operate with.

There is a detail that needs to be noted, with any Alkali metal fire you should never use water as it can make the situation far worse, as these metals love to liberate hydrogen gas from water. This is why there are fire extinguishers made explicitly for metal fires.

The fire on Freemantle Highway could not have been caused by electric cars, as all have been removed from the ship, showing no or only minor damage. Initial reporting claimed that it was because of electric cars on board, but even the coast guard, at that time, stated that the source was no known. Turns out, they were not the cause.

I think the fire alarm on a ship designed to carry vehicles should have a better solution than just deactivating the entire system during loading. Make it go into a less sensitive mode or something.

Sounds like to me electric cars need to be isolated from regular cars. As it seems in these cases it was regular cars that started the fires, but electric cars that then perpetuated them. So if the ships were sailing with the cars segregated by a fire-proof divide the electric cars wouldn't have caught fire and the ships may have been saved.

Didn't electrics cars actually survived without burning on this ship which cought fire close to Netherlands?

Loce the details in the videos

Couldn't you just use a kind of deck flush system like what is installed in the decks of US aircraft carriers? Doesn't solve the issue of water quantity, but it would allow you to spray the burning batteries from below. Very useful to have when carrying around things like fighter jets full of fuel and loaded with ordnance. And surely, if the USN can build a system that can withstand the kind of forces experienced when fighter jets (and sometimes also much bigger craft) take off and land, a civilian vessel could be equipped with one that can withstand cars driving over it.

There was a ship with many EVs on fire off the coast of the Netherlands. Big news on all channels and especially in the yellow press. When they found out that the fire broke out on a deck without any EVs around it disappeared from the news as if it never happened.

The same thing happened to the aviation industry. Specifically, UPS 6, which sadly crashed in Dubai, killing it's crew after a heroic effort from the First Officer. Batteries caught fire, all methods of fire prevention were used, but it was too late. Rest In Peace.

A very good video. The hazards of lithium battery fires have been known for a long time. People who mess with large lithium batteries in bikes, cars, computers, or wherever they may be found; need to understand the risks and take precautions. The computer industry (as far as I can recall) had the first of these fires. A quick scan with google reveals laptop fires on airplanes is still a thing. Even fires caused by power tool batteries is a thing (and how careful is a construction crew on a job site?).