About 500 electric vehicles on a burning cargo ship off the Netherlands

Dutch authorities and specialized teams have been tirelessly working to avert a potential environmental catastrophe off the northern coast of the Netherlands as a fire of unknown origin continues to rage on a ship loaded with hundreds of cars for the third consecutive day.

The vessel, operated by the Kaai Line transportation company, was reported to be carrying 3,783 new cars, including 498 electric vehicles. However, the exact number of vehicles on board the ship has not been confirmed by Dutch coastguard authorities.

The cause of the fire has not been officially announced yet, but the owner of the cargo ship, Schuyler Keesen Kaisha, suggested that it might have started in one of the electric cars on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.

On Thursday, a recording of a wireless conversation between rescue teams during the initial rescue operations on Wednesday was published by RTV Netherlands, where one member of the team referred to the fire originating "in an electric car battery."

The cargo ship "Fremantle Highway" remains anchored about 17 kilometers north of Terschelling Island and is connected to a rescue vessel to prevent it from drifting, as confirmed in a statement by the coastguard on Friday. Additionally, four other rescue ships are present at the site, while an aircraft belonging to the authorities continues to fly over the area to capture images.

The ship flies the flag of Panama and had been drifting westward after the fire broke out.

The coastguard's spokesperson, Edwin Granneman, stated on Thursday that "the temperature on board the ship is still very high, making firefighting efforts difficult." He explained to the news broadcaster BNR that "if a large quantity of water were to be poured onto the ship, it could affect its stability."

During the rescue operations, one crew member tragically lost their life after being rescued along with 22 other crew members, all of whom were Indian nationals, from the blazing ship, forcing some crew members to jump overboard.

The "Fremantle Highway" is a car-carrying ship weighing 18,500 tons and was sailing from Bremerhaven, Germany, to Port Said, Egypt, according to the marine traffic monitoring website "MarineTraffic."



AFP