Auto carrier ship burning off Holland now reported to have had nearly 500, not 25 electric vehicles on board

American Thinker ^ | 08/01/2023 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

The saga of the Fremantle Highway, a special purpose auto carrier ship that has been on fire off of Holland for almost a week, killing at least one crew member, now raises even deeper suspicions about the role of lithium ion batteries, used in electric cars, as a source and aggravating factor in the blaze. In a report published here on AT 5 days ago, we cited reporting from CBS News that as many as 25 electric vehicles may have been among the more  than 3000 cars being transported from Germany to Egypt. Now comes news that 20 times more battery powered vehicles were on board, via The Truth About Cars:

Photo credit: Netherlands Coast Guard

An enormous vehicle carrier that caught fire at sea earlier this week appears to have far more EVs on board than first suggested.

This ship, christened Fremantle Highway, was first reported aflame off the Dutch coast a couple of days ago. Initial information hinted there were at least 25 EVs on its manifest and that the conflagration likely began at or near one of those cars. Now, reports are surfacing that there could be nearly five hundred electric cars in the ship’s hold, a realization that adds a lot more gravitas to a situation that has already claimed the life of one person and injured scores of others.

A spokesperson for the vessel’s charter told Automotive News their records show 3,783 vehicles in total aboard the ship, about a thousand more than first reported, including 498 battery-electric vehicles. 

While this not conclusive evidence that lithium ion batteries were at fault in the fire, it does raise odds considerably.   And the larger number of batteries involved potentially makes the fire that much more difficult to extinguish,

[dynachrome]

Tow it somewhere out of the way and sink it.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Those 500 EVs are going to do their part to get our oceans “boiling”.

[no-to-illegals]

New meaning to “Fire Up the Engine”

[linMcHlp]

World’s Largest Floating “Green” Battery

[teeman8r]

the carbon footprint will be hard to overcome with the sales of more EVs...

[Red Badger]

China.

They won’t notice...............

[Seaplaner]

To extinguish a lithium fire, one must cool the bat to a sub-ignition temperature.

A CO2 (ha ha ha) fire extinguisher might work in certain circumstances.

[PGR88]

[Tench_Coxe]

Ever notice how you never get the straight story when something goes against “The Narrative”, be it EVs, Covid jabs, Green New Deal, Ukraine, election integrity, etc?

[Tupelo]

Boy Howdy! It is starting to look like transporting electric vehicles with lithium ion batteries is even worser than transporting ICE vehicles with a full tank of real fuel.
And allowing the crew to smoke in in the cargo hold.
With faulty fuel caps.
And leaking tanks.
while celebrating a holiday with fireworks.

[Rappini]

Gee I wonder how the fire started.

[iontheball]

All you need is one shorted out hot battery fire and the entire ship goes up in smoke and then down in the drink.

[Sertorius]

climate change caused the batteries to explode.

[Noumenon]

I wonder how much longer before shipping companies refuse to handle EVs.

[Sirius Lee]

And the larger number of batteries involved potentially makes the fire that much more difficult to extinguish,

LOL! Dumbasses.

[skimbell]

500 instead of 25?
Chit! That’s a mistake that anybody could make.
Wonder what the real numbers are.

[Blurb2350]

My thought exactly! The role of electric cars in uncontrollable fires is carefully concealed, just as the race of violent criminals is omitted. And we learn to recognize the signs and become ever more cynical.

[Colo9250]

I wonder how many of those EVs were Mercedes EQE350s which have been recalled for some reason? Seems there was one in the Jacksonville Florida area that burnt down a woman’s home after being left in her garage, just a few weeks ago. It was loaner.

Probably not a good idea to leave any EV in a garage.

[Parley Baer]

The first reports I saw of this fire, the ship had 498 electric cars on board. I guess that number did not sit well with the greenies and they have been massaging the number down.