3:03 pm, July 26, 2023
A fire on board a freight ship carrying nearly 3,000 cars was today burning out of control in the North Sea.
One crew member was reported to have died and several others injured, and officials were working to save the Fremantle Highway from sinking.
The vessel was sailing from the German port of Bremenhaven to Port Said in Egypt when she caught fire some 17 miles (27km) north of the Dutch island of Ameland.
Boats and helicopters got the 23 crew members off the ship after they tried unsuccessfully to put out the blaze, the Dutch coastguard said in a statement.
Some of the crew jumped off the ship’s deck into the sea and were picked up by a lifeboat, the lifeboat’s captain told Dutch broadcaster NOS.
Some suffered broken bones, burns and breathing problems and were taken to hospitals in the northern Netherlands, emergency services said.
The cause of the blaze wasn’t immediately known, and it was not clear how the crew member’s death occurred.
Coastguard spokeswoman Lea Versteeg told the Associated Press in a phone interview: ‘It’s carrying cars – 2,857, of which 25 are electric cars, which made the fire even more difficult.
‘It’s not easy to keep that kind of fire under control and even in such a vessel it’s not easy.
‘Currently, there are a lot of vessels on scene to monitor the situation and to see how to get the fire under control.
‘But it’s all depending on weather and the damage to the vessel, so we’re currently working out how we can make sure that … the least bad situation is going to happen.’
According to Automotive News Europe, Mercedes-Benz has said about 350 of the cars were Mercedes vehicles.
The tragedy comes nearly 17 months after at least 4,000 Porsches and Bentleys were lost when a cargo ship carrying the VW Group vehicles sank mid-Atlantic after a catastrophic fire.
Asked if it was possible the Fremantle Highway could sink, Versteeg said: ‘It’s a scenario we’re taking into account and we’re preparing for all scenarios.’
By early this afternoon, two ships were alongside the freighter, hosing down her sides in an attempt to cool them, the coastguard said, but firefighters were still unable to try to extinguish flames on the ship and smoke was billowing out of its hold.
The accident happened near a chain of Dutch and German islands popular with tourists in the shallow Wadden Sea.
It’s a World Heritage-listed area described by Unesco as ‘the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world’ and ‘one of the most important areas for migratory birds in the world’.
One towing ship managed to establish a connection with the freighter to hold it in place.
Versteeg said: ‘We hope that the fire will be under control or will die out and that we can get the vessel in a safe location, but it’s all uncertain what’s going to happen now.’
The coastguard said in a statement that salvage companies and water authorities were ‘looking at the best ways to limit the damage as much as possible’.
Authorities in Germany were also on alert, German news agency dpa reported.
‘We are monitoring the situation,’ a spokesman for the German sea disaster command in the northern city of Cuxhaven said, adding that it had offered support to the Dutch authorities.
He said rescue ships and task forces were ready to help if needed, but that no decision had been made on whether to send them.
Pictured at top: Smoke and flames are seen on the car freight ship Fremantle Highway. Image credit: Kustwacht Nederland/Coastguard Netherlands via AP
