To recap, the car carrier was on the way from Europe to the U.S. with a load of new vehicles on board when it caught fire Wednesday near the Azores. All 22 crew members were rescued, and the ship was left adrift and burning. There were reports that the ship would be towed to the Azores, but the 650-foot-long ship is too big for the port of Horta there. The ship is likely to be towed back to Europe or to the Bahamas, Captain Joao Mendes Cabecas from Port of Horta told Reuters.
Bloomberg, which managed to get access to an internal email from Volkswagen AG's U.S. operations, reported there were 3965 vehicles on board. Around 100 of the vehicles are apparently VW models destined for the U.S. Porsche spokesperson Luke Vandezande told Bloomberg that the automaker estimates it had around 1100 vehicles on the Felicity Ace, and 189 Bentleys have also been confirmed as being part of the cargo list.
(https://www.yahoo.com/now/report-says-burning-ship-carrying-150100628.html)
First question that comes to my mind: are ships not equipped with fire extinguishment systems? It's not like the ship doesn't have access to an abundant supply of water, right?
Sounds like this ship was carrying a significant number of electric vehicles which have dangerous batteries that are extremely difficult to extinguish without special equipment.
This is a definitely a major concern as the world turns more and more towards electric vehicles.
If the things can spontaneously combust, they are not safe..... no matter how environmentally-friendly they may or may not be.
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt