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Burning freighter "Felicity Ace":
The ship with around 4000 VW vehicles on board is drifting with a list in front of the Azores
Photo: AP
Fire drama in the middle of the Atlantic: A huge burning freighter is still drifting on the Atlantic Ocean 170 kilometers south of the Azores, which belong to Portugal.
The freighter "Felicity Ace" has 4,000 cars from the Volkswagen Group on board that are destined for the American market: including 1,100 Porsche vehicles, 186 Bentleys, some Lamborghinis, Audis and numerous electric models from VW's ID family.
On Friday, three tugboats from Gibraltar and the Netherlands set course for the burning ship to tow it into port.
The nearest port in the Azores is out of the question, the burning freighter is too big for that.
The plan was initially to extinguish the burning ship in port.
However, the tugs still need at least two days to reach the Felicity Ace.
Salvage specialists should now extinguish the fire on the open sea
But now the ship owners and VW are apparently running out of time.
According to the latest official information, specialists from the Dutch salvage company Smit, who have been near the ship since Friday, are trying to bring the fire under control as quickly as possible by extinguishing the fire on the high seas.
This is not an easy undertaking, also because of the many electric cars on board: the batteries in the electric models cannot simply be extinguished with water.
Experts from the salvage company analyzed the situation on the car transporter "Felicity Ace" several times at close range over the weekend, as the newspaper "Correio dos Açores" reported, citing a spokesman for the Portuguese Navy.
So far, the plan was to first bring the ship to a port and then put out the fire.
But now the use of fire extinguishers on the open sea is being considered, it said.
The fire that broke out on Wednesday for reasons that are still unknown cannot be extinguished with water because of the risk of large-scale environmental pollution.
The ship has a slight list and it is feared that toxic substances will be washed into the sea.
Joao Mendes Cabeças, the port captain of Porto da Horta on the Azores island of Faial, said that many of the cars charged were electric models whose batteries made deleting them even more complicated.
Freighter list - Freighter hull melted in places
Video footage posted by the crew of the Setúbal patrol boat on Twitter on Sunday showed thick smoke rising from bow to stern over the 200-meter-long freighter.
The hull had already melted in places.
The 22 crew members were evacuated by Portugal's air force soon after the fire broke out.
Three ocean-going tugs should arrive at the "Felicity Ace" by the middle of the week.
When asked, Volkswagen confirmed that the ship - which was reportedly en route from Emden to Davisville, Rhode Island - was transporting new VW Group vehicles.
A spokesman did not want to confirm the number of individual models.
There are a total of around 4,000 cars on board the ship, including many electric cars, said the port captain of Horta in the Azores, Joao Mendes Cabecas.
Lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles caught fire, making it difficult to extinguish the fire.
"The ship is burning from end to end," he said.
"Everything caught fire from five meters above the waterline."
Insurance question still unclear
It was initially not clear who was insuring the damage.
According to Allianz, which has experience with maritime risks, problems with car transporters are among the greatest safety risks in shipping.
There are always lengthy rescue operations: In June 2020, for example, it took eight days for a fire on the "Höegh Xiamen" car transporter to be extinguished.
According to shipping lawyer James Turner, fires are often caused by electrical faults.
If electric cars with lithium-ion batteries are on board, special equipment is needed to bring the flames under control.
Traditionally, car carriers are designed like multi-level parking garages, with each level sealed, which could reduce damage to cargo.
The VW spokesman said it was unclear at the moment how many cars were damaged.
Youtuber Matt Farah's new Porsche, whose channel "The Smoking Tire" has more than a million fans, is probably also on board: "My car is now swimming, probably on fire, in the middle of the ocean," he tweeted.
An Audi spokeswoman confirmed that vehicles from the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer are on board the ship alongside other VW brands.
"We are very relieved that the 22 crew members of the merchant ship Felicity Ace are safe," the spokesman said.
A spokesman for Lamborghini in the US declined to comment on the number of vehicles on board or the models affected, according to the report.
The ship sails under the flag of Panama.
The Felicity Ace is around 200 meters long and was built in 2005.
When exactly the ship caught fire is still unclear.
It is not the first time that the Volkswagen Group has suffered major damage on the high seas.
When the "Grande America" caught fire and sank in 2019, more than 2,000 luxury cars went down with the ship - including many Audis and Porsches.
la/dpa-afx