Why Do Electric Cars Sink Ships?

Some observations from myself as a Fire Engineer. 3:58 - this is called a backdraught - it is when a ventilation controlled fire (called a fire post flashover, where it have moved from fuel controlled to vent controlled) gains new air and causes a significant deflagration with associated temperature rise and pressure wave. 6:00 - most suppression foam actually doesn't remove heat or oxygen, what is does it is uses highly reactive substances (usually containing bromine or similar) to react with all the intermediate free-radical molecules in the combustion reaction. The oxygen stays, the heat stays, but the combustion reaction is halted through removal of the chain reaction caused by the free radicals. This is an explanation for why the "fire triangle" is too simplistic and many refer to a "fire pentagon".

I work in aviation and there is a huge focus on lithium battery fires. An uncontained fire is just about every pilot's worst nightmare so lots of extra training for us, and you'll hear lots of announcements like "if you notice your batteries are damaged or getting hot please contact the crew immediately". These are from portable electronic devices though, not an entire car, or multiple cars...

I hadn't realised the Felicity Ace had gone down. I worked on that ship a few times when it came to the Port of Tyne a few years ago, loading Nissans and discharging various other vehicles.

I've help ship Tesla Megapacks for their recharge stations out to Hawaii before and basically the company told us that if one catches fire don't bother trying to put it out just abandon ship. Also as far as I'm aware no shipping company will take damaged Evs off the islands meaning that they're stuck there when they crash.

Do transport ships dream of electric cars?

The best explanation I’ve heard as to how and why electric vehicle fires are hard to stop.

The title of the video is misleading since the NTSB investigation concluded - "The NTSB determined the probable cause of the fire aboard the Höegh Xiamen was Grimaldi Deep Sea’s (who time chartered the vessel) and SSA Atlantic’s (Grimaldi’s contractor for stevedores) ineffective oversight of longshoremen, which did not identify that Grimaldi’s vehicle battery securement procedures were not being followed. This resulted in an electrical fault from an improperly disconnected battery in a used vehicle on cargo deck 8. Contributing to the delay in the detection of the fire was the crew not immediately reactivating the vessel’s fire detection system after the completion of loading. Contributing to the extent of the fire was the master’s decision to delay the release of the carbon dioxide fixed fire extinguishing system.' In a recent incident in the UK, a fire at an airport multi-storey car park destroyed 1500 vehicles. The cause of the fire was determined to be a fault on a car with a diesel engine.

Hi Kym, seems we made almost the same video in quite different ways 🙂 Please allow some remarks: Re Hoegh Xianmen: The fire dampers could not be operated automatically but had been converted to manual ones some time ago. The NTSB report assumed that the ventilation had not been properly closed, rendering the CO2 attack ineffective. Note: the recommended fire fighting system according to SOLAS is water mist, CO2 only being an alternative option. The explosion in the vent house was a backdraft, meaning that overheated smoke ignited when the air came in. That caused the devastating effect. It should also be a reminder that we have to do coordinated attacks and only ventilate when we can actually put water on the fire. Re Freemantle Hightway: the electric vehicles had not been involved in the fire. An interestin observation: when we look at the footage of the burning ship, it seems like the smoke is coming from the vent houses on deck, suggesting a problem with ventilation again. Will see when the report is out. Thank you for the video and keep up the great work, always enjoy watching your vids ❤ Best, Marie

The idea of having a fire alarm system that requires you to turn it off at a point in which your cargo is most likely to catch fire (Running cars) is such a fundamental flaw they should have never been allowed to operate with.

On the Northlink boats to Shetland we have had many discussions about what to do in the event an electric car catches fire. Since there is no standard way of dealing with it yet and no tools designed to help we made your own, which you can attach to a hose and slide it underneath the car to direct the water upwards towards the battery. Its just a few pipes with a few sprinkler heads attached securely to it directed upwards. Easy to use but never been tested and hopefully we never will need to.

I think the only real solution would be much smaller compartments that can be flooded if necessary. And even then you might need to think about how to vent steam pressure and add new water

What came to my mind is military aircraft hangars that can be flooded with foam in case of fire. Could they use an FSS system that does something similar? It wouldn't stop the EV fires but it could isolate them. I guess the biggest obstacle would be the size and weight constraints of the system. Or even the weight of the foam if you pump in seawater to generate it.

There is a detail that needs to be noted, with any Alkali metal fire you should never use water as it can make the situation far worse, as these metals love to liberate hydrogen gas from water. This is why there are fire extinguishers made explicitly for metal fires.

Maybe the solution isn’t with shipping companies but car manufacturers. Instead of putting the battery in at the factory and using boats, why not put the battery in where you are shipping it to. It’s not a perfect idea but it would work for some I think

Didn't the shipping company tell us that all the EVs.where untouch by the fire on the Fremantle ship. Was that not the case?

What an amazing video -- keep up the great work!

I’m an engineer working on safety in EV batteries. This was a really well researched video! One note though is that the role of water in extinguishing a battery fire is to remove the heat because both fuel and oxygen are contained within the battery. It will be crucial to rethink both the fire suppression and ventilation of ships in as we move to transporting more and more electric vehicles.

I think large Lithium battery packs should have their own passive fire suppression systems. These don't necessarily need to stop a fire completely, but should at least slow down its spread considerably so current external fire suppression systems would be effective.

Another great video. Also I got my Little Captain last month ❤!

I remember hearing about the Felicity Ace when Lamborghini had to temporarily restart production for the Aventador Ultimae since they had cars on that ship.