Race to salvage sinking cargo ship carrying 3,000 vehicles including 350 Mercedes as it burns out of control in North Sea after fire 'caused by electric car'
- Cargo ship was sailing from Germany to Egypt when an electric car caught fire
- Crew attempted to put the flames out themselves, with at least one being killed
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A few years ago I ordered a replacement battery for my laptop. It was the wrong one so I tried to return it for exchange. That turned out to be impossible because I couldn't find a courier on this island that was licensed to carry lithium batteries. So how did it get to me in the first place? Apparently only the initial shipping company needed to be licensed. In this case, the one in England. It was passed via various couriers through Europe and they simply carried the originating licence. But to return the battery, I needed a new licence.
At that time I realised that lithium batteries were going to be problematic. Clearly, they were potentially dangerous - almost as bad as explosives. Later, I discovered that once a lithium cell catches fire, it can't be extinguished. If a battery of cells catches fire, it can't be extinguished. So it's logical to conclude that if a ship full of cars containing lithium cells catches fire, it can't be extinguished. Goodbye ship.
As a corollary, if a plane containing lithium batteries hit a WTC tower, it would quite possibly burn to the ground. [They] missed a trick there!