A deadly blaze on a cargo ship carrying nearly 3,000 cars from Germany resulted in the loss of one crew member’s life and forcing others to jump into the sea. According to a spokesperson for the coast guard, the fire is suspected to have originated from one of the 25 electric vehicles that were on board.
The Freemantle Highway was transporting 2,857 cars from Germany to Egypt when the fire started off the northern coast of the Netherlands, the Dutch coastguard reports. Twenty-five of the cars were electric vehicles and it’s suspected that one of the EVs is responsible for the fire, which is currently still burning.
One dead, multiple injured
One man has already been killed as a result of the accident and several others have been injured. At least seven of the crew were forced to jump into the North Sea from the Panama-registered ship to escape the fire around 27 nautical miles (50 km) from the island of Ameland. The seven jumpers were rescued from the water while those still on the boat were airlifted by a helicopter. In total 23 people were removed to safety while emergency crews continue to attempt to tackle the fire.
EV fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish, the lithium batteries often reigniting later, and the Dutch coastguard reports that the crew had tried and failed to contain the flames.
“The crew tried to put out the fire themselves, but it didn’t work. The fire continued to expand, triggering an evacuation,” the coastguard said in a statement early this morning. Five hours later it issued another statement saying that “the situation is unchanged. There is still a lot of smoke formation.”
It says that salvage companies and Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch government department in charge of the country’s infrastructure, are working out how to limit further damage, both to the ship and the local environment. In its most recent update the coastguard said that emergency crews were trying to cool the sides of the Freemantle Highway with fire extinguishing systems but still had not been able to put out the fire.
Earlier this year Norwegian shipping company Havila Krystruten said that it would no longer carry electric or electrified vehicles on its vessels due to safety concerns. The announcement came several months after the Felicity Ace caught fire in the Atlantic while transporting cars – including electrified vehicles.
