Hazardous Electric Car Transport: Fires On Ocean Carriers Causing Environmental Catastrophes

UPDATE: “The burning freighter has arrived at its new temporary anchorage after a risky transport along the Dutch Wadden Sea islands. This was announced by the water authority in The Hague on Monday. The new, less dangerous anchorage is about 16 kilometres north of the island of Schiermonnikoog,” Germany’s NIUS.de here reports. 

A major North Sea environmental catastrophe threatens as fire rages on FREMANTLE HIGHWAY carrier…electric car battery is the likely cause. If so it would already be the second major electric car caused accident off Europe’s coast this year.

Electric cars are said to be environmentally friendly because it is claimed they don’t burn fossil fuels and pollute the environment. Electric cars, proponents say, don’t emit CO2 and thus they do not contribute to global warming. Only this far do climate alarmists want us to think.

Hazardous vehicles 

Of course, these claims of electric cars being gentle on the environment are a ghastly load of baloney. When their manufacture, source of energy for charging and end-of-life disposal are taken into account, these cars are often more hazardous than the combustion engine cars.

Another problem that rarely gets mentioned is their safety: their batteries are prone to catch fire, and when they do, the fires are difficult to extinguish. Great damage often results.

North Sea fire likely caused by electric car

The latest news is the story of a fire on the 200-meter long FREMANTLE HIGHWAY sea carrier, which has a carrying capacity of 18,549 tons of dead weight.

Burning automobile carrier threatens the North Sea. Fire likely caused by an electric car onboard. Image: Netherlands Coast Guard, https://kustwacht.nl.

Recently the carrier was transporting nearly 3,000 cars from Bremerhaven, Germany, and was bound for Egypt. On July 26th, 27 kilometers offshore from the Netherlands, a fire broke out and is now threatening to become an “environmental catastrophe” in the North Sea. According to Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) here, the cause of the fire was probably one of the 25 electric cars onboard.

Still burning

“On Friday evening, the Dutch authorities reported that the fire had died down and was emitting less smoke. However, it is still burning, and it is not clear for how long the freighter can withstand the heat,” reports the DW. Should the vessel fail, it would lose its entire cargo along with 1800 tons of fuel. “There is still the danger of an environmental disaster.”

The lithium-ion batteries of electric cars are known to spontaneously catch fire, and thus pose a threat to the property on which they find themselves. In some situations the outcome can be catastrophic, just as is the case with the current North Sea FREMANTLE HIGHWAY general average.

Twenty two crew members were evacuated, one was killed. Currently it appears firefighters have gained the upper hand, but the situation is still serious. It remains uncertain how much the vessel has been damaged and how much more heat it can withstand.

Second electric car fire on a vessel this year 

This is not the first vessel transporting electric cars to be hit by fire. Blackout News here. reports:

At the beginning of 2022, the transport ship “Felicitiy Ace” caught fire 166 kilometers southwest of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean and sank despite extensive attempts to extinguish the fire (Blackout-News: 24. February 2023). The 17-year-old car carrier had 3,965 Volkswagen AG vehicles on board. Among them were 187 vehicles of the noble Bentley brand and 1100 Porsches. Many of the vehicles were also pure electric cars, or hybrids.”

On the Felicity Ace vessel, it is reported that the “lithium-ion batteries of electric vehicles had caught fire” and that “the fire had spread along the entire length of the ship.”

Fire-prone lithium-ion batteries

Blackout News adds in its February 2023 article: “Fires occur time and again in electric cars. Mostly the lithium-ion batteries burn, which are difficult to extinguish. In Germany, several bus depots with electric buses have already burned down. Although there are statistics listing vehicle fires that distinguish between cars. trucks and two-wheelers. However, electric cars are not listed separately.”

Electric car fires are being counted like COVID vaccine injuries: they aren’t!