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A few days ago, the Panamanian freighter Felicity Ace suddenly caught fire in the Atlantic Ocean, which has been burning out of control for nearly a week. Volkswagen or insurance companies will face heavy losses.

The freighter originally planned to set sail from Emden port in Germany on the 10th of this month, preparing to transport a batch of Volkswagen's new cars to Rhode Island in the United States, originally scheduled to arrive at its destination on the 23rd. Unexpectedly, a week after leaving the port, on the afternoon of the 16th local time sailed to 166 kilometers off the southwest of Fayar Island in Portugal, the cargo hold suddenly burst out of flames for unknown reasons, the location of the cargo hold issued an alarm, and suddenly thick black smoke was emitted.

After the accident, 11 people on board were rescued by an oil tanker. The Portuguese Navy Punta Delgada Maritime search and Rescue Coordination Center received a call. Portugal dispatched its navy and air force to carry out the rescue. However, because it did not have the conditions to put out the fire, there was nothing to do about the fire, so it could only use a helicopter to rescue the other 11 crew members who were already on the life raft, and all the crew on board had left the ship safely. According to the relevant shipping website information, the ship is still drifting near the location where the fire caught fire 5 days ago. The Felicity Ace, a Panamanian ship built in 2005, can carry nearly 4000 cars when fully loaded and is operated by Mitsui, Japan.

The Portuguese naval patrol boat left at the scene for observation can only carry out limited rescue. The interior of the ship has been burning and smoke continues to emit from the deck. Smoke was rising from the bow to the stern of the 200-meter-long freighter, and some parts of the ship's side had begun to melt. The situation of the whole ship is not optimistic, 5 meters above the waterline, the bow to the stern is burning, the fuel bunker at the bottom of the ship has been temporarily closed, there will be no fuel pollution problem for the time being, but the ship is out of control.

According to media statistics, there are a total of 3965 German Volkswagen brand vehicles on board, and the public relations of some related major brands have confirmed this news, including at least 1100 Porsche, 189Bentley, Audi, Lamborghini, Volkswagen ID.4 and other models, while a Volkswagen spokesman would not disclose the specific model and number. Portugal confirmed that the ship was carrying electric vehicles by investigating ship data, which made it more difficult to put out the fire.

Because it contains a lot of electric cars, it has also attracted a lot of netizens' speculation about the cause of the fire. However, due to the special location of the accident, 10 maritime rescue experts were sent to inspect the scene in the air last Friday, and several rescue ships were also on their way to the site of the accident. It is expected that the rescue team will not be able to reach the relevant waters until around the 23rd. The rescue company said that because there are many electric vehicles on board, it is not possible to determine whether the fire was caused by electric vehicles in the cabin at first, but at present, the lithium batteries on electric vehicles have become a source of fire, so it is difficult to put out the fire. Even if the rescue team arrives at the scene of the fire two days later, it can only be towed back by tugboats to a port in continental Europe to deal with the aftermath of the fire, so it is impossible to predict the final fate of the ship.

From the electric vehicle fire scene that we have observed in the past, most electric vehicle fires end with the full burning of batteries, but if hundreds of electric vehicles appear at the scene of the fire, the situation is unlikely to be optimistic.

This is not the first time Volkswagen has suffered serious damage on the high seas. In 2019, another transport ship carrying Volkswagen vehicles caught fire, and more than 2000 Audi and Porsche eventually sank into the sea. Usually, in the case of an accident, an insurance company will bear the fire risk loss in the course of transportation, but the final cause of the fire may take at least several months.

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