- Ship with 3,000 vehicles catches fire off Dutch coast, 1 crew member dead, others injured.
- Rescue operations ongoing, risk of ship sinking due to water usage.
- International Maritime Organisation to evaluate safety measures for electric vehicle transport on ships.
A ship carrying almost 3,000 vehicles caught fire off the coast of the Netherlands, resulting in the death of one crew member and injuries to several others, according to the coastguard.
The fire broke out on the 199-meter Panama-registered vessel, named Fremantle Highway, during the night of Tuesday. The ship was on its way from Germany to Egypt, and some crew members were compelled to jump overboard to escape the blaze. Reports suggest that all the crew members were of Indian nationality.
Rescue operations involved spraying water on the burning ship to cool it down, but excessive water usage posed a risk of the vessel sinking, as warned by the Dutch coastguard. To prevent drifting, a salvage vessel was attached to the ship.
According to Dutch news agency ANP, the fire is expected to persist for several days, and smoke continued to emanate from the vessel near Ameland, a northern Dutch island.
Edwin Versteeg, a spokesperson for the Dutch Department of Waterways and Public Works, stated that the fire remains challenging to control, possibly due to the nature of the cargo the ship was carrying.
The coastguard stated on its website that the cause of the fire on the ship, which was carrying nearly 3,000 vehicles, remains unknown. However, an earlier statement by a coastguard spokesperson to Reuters suggested that the fire might have started near an electric car. Out of the 2,857 vehicles on board, approximately 25 were electric.
In response to the increasing number of fires on cargo ships involving electric vehicles, the International Maritime Organisation, responsible for sea safety regulations, plans to assess new measures for ships transporting electric cars next year.
[embedpost slug=”wildfires-ravage-nine-european-countries-amid-scorching-heat-and-winds/”]
