Recently, the fire on the automobile ship “Fremantle Highway” has attracted widespread attention from industry insiders, with preliminary estimates that cargo damage may exceed $330 million. Combined with the ro-ro ship fire accidents that have occurred in recent years, it can’t help but arouse people’s attention and concern about the safety of automobile ship transportation. In particular, there is a growing debate around the safe transportation of electric vehicles. This article will review and analyze the more serious automobile ship fire cases in the past five years, in order to help the members of automobile ship operators in the fire prevention of automobile ship transportation.
1. Data analysis of automobile ship fire accidents
According to Lloyd’s List statistics, the proportion of car ship fire accidents in the total accidents every year is not particularly high. Moreover, the fire accidents of automobiles and ships have not shown a trend of increasing year by year, but the proportion of fire accidents has decreased in the past two or three years. So, why is the fire accident of the car ship still causing everyone’s concern? This is because once a fire accident occurs on a car ship, due to the close arrangement of cars, the fire will spread rapidly and sweep through the entire deck layer, resulting in an uncontrollable situation. If a fire puts the car ship and the car on board at risk of total loss, the total damage caused by the final accident can be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, which will undoubtedly have a catastrophic impact on car owners, cargo owners and insurers, and also have a huge impact on the shipping industry.
Overall, although car boat fires are less frequent, the consequences can be very serious. We will let everyone have a certain understanding and understanding of the huge economic losses caused by car ship fire accidents through the following more serious car ship fire cases in the past five years.
2. Serious automobile ship fire cases in the past five years
On July 25, 2023, the Panamanian-flagged car vessel “Fremantle Highway” caught fire in the North Sea while traveling from Bremerhaven, Germany, to Port Said, Egypt. The accident resulted in the death of one crew member and several injuries. According to the ship’s charterer, “K” Line, there are a total of 3,783 vehicles on board, including 498 electric vehicles. Up to now, the ship fire has been extinguished and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. According to preliminary estimates, the fire could cause more than $330 million in cargo damage.
On July 5, 2023, a fire broke out on the Italian-flagged RoRo ship “Grande Costa D’Avorio” while loading used cars for export in the Port of Newark, New Jersey, USA. The accident killed two firefighters and injured six others. The fire continued to burn for about six days before being extinguished. According to the ship’s operator, Grimaldi Deep Sea, there are about 1,200 cars and 157 containers on board, but there should be no electric vehicles or dangerous goods on board. The USCG and NTSB are investigating the cause of the accident.
On February 16, 2022, the Panamanian ship “Felicity Ace” caught fire about 90 nautical miles southwest of the Azores while sailing from the German port of Embuden to the United States, and all 22 crew members abandoned safely. The fire was extinguished after burning for nearly a week, but eventually sank to the bottom of the sea while towing. According to statistics, the accident may cost more than $500 million. The Panama Maritime Authority has submitted an accident investigation report to the IMO in May 2022, but it has not yet been made public. According to the rescued captain, the cause of the fire may have been a fire in a lithium-battery electric vehicle.
On June 4, 2020, the Höegh Xiamen ship caught fire in the Port of Jacksonville, USA, carrying 2,420 used cars, and the fire lasted for more than a week before it was extinguished, and nine firefighters were injured while fighting the fire, resulting in accident losses of more than $40 million. The NTSB investigation found that the cause of the fire was an electrical fault caused by a used car’s battery not being properly disconnected. In addition, the NTSB argued that charterers improperly regulated dockworkers; The stevedores did not follow the vehicle battery disconnection procedures; the crew did not inspect the vehicle effectively; The captain’s decision to release carbon dioxide to stationary the fire extinguishing system was delayed, all of which caused the fire to get out of control.
On March 10, 2019, the Grande America ship caught fire on its way from the port of Hamburg, Germany, to the port of Casablanca, Morocco, and sank in the Bay of Biscay two days later, and the VDR was not salvaged. The ship carried about 860 tons of dangerous goods and 2100 new and used cars. The crew abandoned the ship and were rescued, no one was injured. The Italian authorities submitted an accident report to the IMO, but it has not been made public and the cause of the accident is still inconclusive. However, the NTSB said firefighters initially found sparks from a truck on the deck of a vehicle while extinguishing the fire.
On December 31, 2018, the Panamanian ship “Sincerity Ace” caught fire in the Pacific Ocean about 1,800 nautical miles from Oahu, and the captain was forced to order the ship to be abandoned. The fire continued for several days, and the ship was eventually towed back to Japan. The vessel, operated by Mitsui Merchant Marine (MOL) and carrying 3,800 Nissan vehicles, reportedly remained unclear about the cause of the fire. The Panama Maritime Authority submitted an investigation report to the IMO, but the report has not yet been made public.
3. Analysis of automobile ship fire accidents
Up to now, the cause of many car ship fires is still unknown. The fire is easy to damage the evidence on the ship (including VDR), and the testimony of the rescued people and the rescued crew is not rigorous and comprehensive, which is also the reason why the investigation of fire accidents is more difficult. However, from the known and public investigation conclusions, it can be seen that both new and used cars are dangerous and may cause fires. Most of them are fires caused by the failure of internal combustion engine vehicles.
It is worth noting that since the fire accident on the “Felicity Ace” wheel, the industry has begun to have a huge debate about the safe transportation of electric vehicles. In the recent “Fremantle Highway” fire accident, there are also reports that the fire was caused by the lithium battery of an electric vehicle. Of course, the accident is still under further investigation. So are electric cars more dangerous than internal combustion engine vehicles? According to a study by Auto Insurance EZ, an insurance recommendation website in the United States, the probability of lithium battery electric vehicles catching fire is only 0.03%, while the probability of internal combustion engine vehicles catching fire is 1.5%. From this point of view, the probability of a fire in an internal combustion engine car is almost five times higher than that of an electric vehicle. In addition, the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) believes that the transportation of electric vehicles carries certain risks, but they are different from the risks of transporting internal combustion engine vehicles, and the results do not show that the transportation risks of electric vehicles are more dangerous than internal combustion engine vehicles. In addition, according to IUMI, the fire accident that occurred on the car ship has never been proven to be caused by a newly shipped electric vehicle. Although no fire accidents have been proven to be related to the transportation of electric vehicles, the transportation of electric vehicles with lithium batteries by car boats is indeed attracting more and more attention.
But why do we talk about “lithium” color change? This is mainly because news of electric vehicle fires on shore has long been rife. And lithium batteries are dangerous. According to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG Code), lithium batteries are classified as Class 9 dangerous goods. The causes of lithium battery fire include product defects, overcharging, external heat sources, and abnormalities inside the battery caused by heavy falls and impacts. From the perspective of the characteristics of lithium batteries, lithium batteries burn faster and hotter than fossil fuels such as gasoline, and the maximum temperature may exceed 1000 °C when burning, while the maximum temperature of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles is about 500 °C. In addition, lithium batteries burn longer and are prone to “thermal runaway”. Even, lithium batteries sometimes reignite after hours or days that seem to go out. This is because lithium batteries can produce oxygen when burning, so it is difficult to effectively prevent them from burning even if water or carbon dioxide fire extinguishers are used. It can be seen that it is actually very difficult to extinguish lithium battery fires. If extinguished with water, it often takes a lot of water, more water to extinguish the flames on the surface, and continuous water is needed to prevent the risk of lithium battery reignition. However, if a fire occurs on a car ship, excessive water consumption may cause changes in the stability of the ship, which can easily cause the ship to capsize.
4. Risk prevention of fire accidents on automobiles and ships
Whether the ship transports electric vehicles or internal combustion engine vehicles, in order to ensure the safety of the ship and its crew, the owner of the automobile ship should pay attention to and pay attention to the fire hazards of automobile ship transportation from the following aspects:
- Crew members need to understand the specificities of different types of electric vehicles to accurately identify the fire risk of electric vehicles. At present, there are three main types of electric vehicles: pure electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs).
- Use on-board monitoring equipment to closely monitor the situation of the vehicles loaded on the ship, and clearly grasp the location of different types of cars. In the event of a fire, it can arrive at the scene in time and take effective means to extinguish the fire.
- The ship needs to be equipped with a specially tailored fire detection system that can effectively protect against different types of car fire hazards to a certain extent. For example, when a fire detection system shows that the temperature in an area reaches a certain temperature, the fire extinguishing procedure is immediately executed.
- The ship should be equipped with sufficient fire extinguishing systems to effectively respond to different fire situations. Crew members need to wear professional equipment when extinguishing fires, and use thermal imaging cameras or fire blankets to effectively extinguish fires. When the fire is small, carbon dioxide extinguishing, foam fire extinguishing equipment or shipboard water sprinkler system can be used.
- It calls for strengthening additional safety requirements for electric vehicle transportation, such as controlling the charging capacity of lithium batteries within 30% to reduce the risk of thermal runaway of lithium batteries. In addition, it is completely prohibited to load personal belongings into used cars on RoRo ships.
- In order to better guide crew members on how to take effective measures and eliminate fire hazards in a timely manner, it is recommended that ship owners actively cooperate with classification societies, flag states, etc., and formulate corresponding rules, standards and guidelines to ensure the safety of electric vehicle transportation.
- Strengthen the crew’s understanding of dealing with automobile transport fires, conduct regular fire training for crew members, and master the correct use of various fire extinguishing equipment and the knowledge of fire extinguishing of different types of vehicles.
5. Future prospects
As the global demand to achieve decarbonization goals continues to increase, so does the demand for electric vehicles, which also brings many new challenges to traditional car and ship transportation. The concerns and debates in the shipping industry about the safe transportation of electric vehicles can also confirm that shipowners and related practitioners are working hard to adapt to and solve this new technology and new risks. We look forward to relevant international organizations and industry associations formulating a series of new regulations and new measures for the safe transportation of electric vehicles as soon as possible to address the new problems and challenges faced by car and ship transportation. It is understood that the IMO has set up a special working group to study this hot topic, believing that through technical and legal norms, the safety of car and ship transportation can be greatly improved.
