{"id":219660,"date":"2022-02-18T10:25:24","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T15:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=219660"},"modified":"2022-02-18T17:10:22","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T22:10:22","slug":"car-carrier-full-of-vws-porsches-burning-adrift-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2022\/02\/car-carrier-full-of-vws-porsches-burning-adrift-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Car Carrier Full of VWs, Porsches Burning “End to End,” Cargo Likely Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story has been updated with new developments.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Felicity
The Felicity Ace is burning “from end to end,” according to its captain.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Felicity Ace, a car carrier loaded with new Volkswagens and Porsches has caught fire and is adrift in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ship\u2019s 22 crew members were forced to abandon the cargo carrier as flames spread, according to maritime officials. Rescue efforts have begun, according to wire reports and statements from the Portugese Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Felicity Ace was en route from Emden, where Volkswagen has a major assembly plant, to a port in Davisville, Rhode Island, according to Marine Traffic<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, a website that track maritime shipping. Volkswagen’s all-electric ID.4 SUV is among the vehicles produced at the Emden plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of vehicles may be lost<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Felicity
The Felicity Ace car carrier is carrying nearly 4,000 VWs, Porsches, Bentleys and Lamborghinis while on fire and adrift at sea.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Felicity Ace is carrying a mix of Volkswagen Group vehicles, including VW models such as the ID.4, Porsches, Lamborghinis and 189 Bentleys. It was bound for several ports serving the U.S. market. Automotive News quoted economist Patrick Anderson as estimating the cargo to be worth “at least $255 million.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those impacted by the fire is television and podcast host Matt Farah who was waiting for the delivery of a Porsche Boxster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe dealer confirmed that my car, along with at least a dozen other vehicles they were expecting, is on that boat,\u201d Farah told CNN. Farah said he has waited eight months for his Boxster to be delivered<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey had no further information for me beyond confirming my car was on the boat,\u201d added Farah, \u201cand said that as soon as Porsche Cars North America has a plan of any kind with how to proceed, that they would share the plans with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fire continues to burn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But the effort is being hampered by the nature of the fire. There are numerous electric vehicles on board the the 656-foot roll-on\/roll-off carrier and Captain Joao Mendes Cabe\u00e7as said their lithium-ion batteries have ignited and will need to be taken to a port where special equipment is available to extinguish them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Issues with car carriers are rare, but not unheard of as the Golden Ray capsized in rough seas off the Georgia coast in 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It remains unclear how the fire began. It is uncertain whether it was touched off by a battery fire or if the fire led to the lithium-ion cells igniting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The ship is burning from one end to the other\u2026 everything is on fire about five meters above the water line,” Captain Cabe\u00e7as said during a meeting with reporters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Portugese Navy was the first to respond to an emergency call, the Felicity Ace catching fire off the coast of the Azores. Several tow vessel have been dispatched but are not expected to arrive until the middle of next week. It remains unclear where the ship will be taken. The Azores cannot handle it and that could require the carrier to be towed as far as the Bahamas, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the crew have been accounted for and rescued and none were reported to have been injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Matt<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear what caused the fire, but the ship\u2019s owners have announced plans to begin towing the vessel, even as the fire continues to burn. The Felicity Ace is operated by Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, but is owned by Snowscape Car Carriers SA, and registered out of Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest car carrier disaster<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With a capacity of 17,000 tons of cargo, the Felicity Ace was making 13.2 knots when the fire broke out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VW officials say they are \u201cin contact\u201d with Mitsui hoping to get more information about the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the latest incident involving a major car carrier. In August 2019, the Golden Ray capsized while loaded<\/a><\/span><\/strong> with 4,100 newly made vehicles onboard. The wreck is still being cleared from the waters just off the Georgia coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Felicity Ace, a car carrier loaded with new Volkswagens and Porsches has caught fire and is adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship\u2019s 22 crew members were forced to abandon the cargo carrier as flames spread. Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,3541,2648,1347],"tags":[4962,4959,4961,2507,507,4960],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219660"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219759,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219660\/revisions\/219759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219660"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=219660"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=219660"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=219660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}