The fire broke out when the Felicity Ace sailed off the Azores. The crew members were rescued.
The ship and its cargo were sucked into the flames. This Wednesday, the Felicity Ace, a cargo ship nearly 200 meters long, caught fire while sailing off the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic. On board, more than 4,000 vehicles, including some 1,100 Porsches and 189 Bentleys, which could not be recovered at this stage. On the other hand, the 22 crew members were rescued by the Portuguese Air Force, which intervened with a helicopter. No injuries are reported.
Current operations
On Thursday, the Portuguese Navy said in a statement that no trace of pollution had been detected in the area. Relief operations, however, continued on Friday. Images published by the Portuguese Navy indeed show a fireboat spraying the Felicity Ace to put an end to the fire, reports the New York Times . American customers who were waiting for the delivery of their car have already been contacted by their dealers, who told them that the fate of their vehicle was uncertain, the daily also specifies.
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According to Joao Mendes Cabecas, captain in charge of the port of Hortas (Portugal), the origin of the fire is not clear at the moment. the Felicity Ace, which flies the flag of Panama, left the port of Emden (Germany) on February 10 to reach the United States. He was expected in Davisville on February 23, as indicated by the real-time tracking site Vessel Finder. Now the Portuguese authorities are trying to come up with a plan to tow the drifting ship. Tugboats left Gibraltar (United Kingdom) and the Netherlands, Joao Mendes Cabecas told Reuters.
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