What happened on the Fremantle Highway? The electric cars, however, were to survive the fire

The car carrier Fremantle Highway caught fire off the coast in late July. The fire left at least one person dead and several others injured. In addition, 2.7 thousand from 3.8 thous. of cars on board the unit were destroyed by fire. After a few days, the fire was extinguished and the ship was towed to the port of Eemshaven. Thanks to this, he did not share the fate of the “Felicity Ace” car carrier, which was extinguished in 2022 after 13 days of rescue operations, but while being towed, the ship tilted to starboard and sank.

The fire of the car carrier Fremantle Highway did not destroy the electricians on board

Initially, Reuters reported that the cause of the fire could be. There were almost 500 of those on board. These reports were quickly denied. At the beginning of August, we learned that the fire started on one of the upper decks of the 12, most likely the eighth, part of which has completely collapsed and is badly damaged – Peter Berdowski, executive director at Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, a company that deals with sea rescue and participated in the operation on the car carrier.

Despite this, some media focused on the electric cars that were on board. “, as well as some Polish media, accused the electrics of the fire. Despite later reports, the articles have not been updated, and their titles suggest that electric vehicles were responsible for the fire. However, Peter Berdowski recently said in an interview with the DPA agency that the fire did not reach the lower decks, which were mostly intact So 1,000 people survived the fire. cars, including almost 500 electrics (it is not clear if all), which “at first glance” appear to be intact. This suggests that the vehicles electrically ignited the ship’s fire, although of course such claims cannot yet be made with certainty.

I would not judge whether electric cars burned on the ship at all, and even more so whether the fire was caused by electric cars, internal combustion cars or, for example, the electrical installation of the ship itself. It is worth waiting for the official investigation report with the final conclusions

– comments Bartłomiej Derski from the Wysokienapiecie.pl portal for Gazeta.pl.

The Dutch station RTL Nieuws published on August 10 photos from the ship’s deck, which also do not dispel these doubts. We can see Mini, Porsche cars and limousines whose manufacturers are difficult to identify due to the damage. However, it is impossible to confirm that there are damaged electric cars in the published photos.

Do electric cars cause fires more often than combustion cars?

Berdowski had previously said in an interview with Bloomberg that “all experts with knowledge on the subject would agree that carrying electricians creates additional risks.” He added that getting them from ship to shore could still be dangerousas the batteries are charged. That is why experts from car manufacturers, e.g. Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes are to investigate how to get safely off the ship.

Statistically, however, there is a greater probability that the fire was caused by a combustion engine car, because there were more such cars, and all available statistics, including Polish ones, show that combustion and hybrid cars burn much more often than electric ones” – writes Bartłomiej Derski. “In the case of a fire of internal combustion and electric cars, we are dealing with a very similar amount of heat released and the temperature of the fire, because both the battery and the fuel in the car are responsible for only 20 percent. entire car fire. The remaining 80 percent these are plastics made from petroleum – the interior, part of the body, tires, wire insulation, etc.” – adds the expert.

Fires of internal combustion and electric cars, however, will be partly different. A combustion engine car, apart from the fact that it ignites statistically more often, can spread a fire faster by spilling fuel. At sea and in multi-storey garages, this is a particularly dangerous phenomenon, which was shown by earlier fires of combustion cars on car carriers or in car parks. On the other hand, electric cars, if their battery catches fire, are harder to put out on the ship. To do this effectively, it is necessary to cool the car from below, which is not provided for by fire extinguishing systems

Derski explains.

It is also worth waiting for the report because of the lack of information on whether the fire extinguishing system on “Fremantle Handle” was operational and whether it worked at all. “In the event of a fire in tightly parked combustion cars (similarly to electric cars), the transfer of fire from one to another lasts from a few to several minutes. Within an hour, several dozen cars can burn and the fire is practically uncontrollable until the transported goods won’t work out,” concludes Derski.