A cargo ship carrying nearly 3,000 vehicles has caught fire off the coast of the Netherlands, with the Dutch coastguard warning that it might take several days to put out the fire. The 199-meter Japanese-owned cargo vessel named Fremantle Highway went up in flames on Tuesday while on its way to Port Said, Egypt, killing one crew member and leaving several others injured. According to a Bloomberg report, around 350 vehicles onboard the cargo ship are believed to be manufactured by the Mercedes-Benz Group AG. Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the company that owns the Panama-flagged vessel, said it was cooperating with local authorities. “We will continue to do our utmost to extinguish the fire and work to resolve the situation as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement.
The vehicles being transported by the ship were on their way to Singapore, according to the Japanese company, which suspected an electric car in the cargo as a possible cause of the blaze. The company claimed that there was “a good chance that the fire started with electric cars”, of which about 25 were on board. “But we are not entirely sure of the cause, we are waiting for the investigation.” There’s no information on which automakers other than Mercedes had their vehicles onboard.
Vanuit het kustwacht✈️ zijn ook nieuwe videobeelden gemaakt van de #FremantleHighway. Updates worden gedeeld op ons liveblog (evenals video- en fotomateriaal voor de media): https://t.co/gWwfcKau0z pic.twitter.com/P6G0jZLRjM
— Kustwacht Nederland (@Kustwacht_nl) July 27, 2023
Currently, rescue ships are fighting to contain the blaze by constantly spraying water. The Dutch coastguard warned that there’s a possibility that that cargo vessel might sink, causing a massive ecological disaster. The area where the vessel caught fire has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site. It is said to have a rich diversity of more than 10,000 aquatic and terrestrial species. This accident is eerily reminiscent of the incident that happened last year where a cargo vessel carrying 4,000 Porsches and Volkswagens caught fire and ultimately sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Hopefully, the Fremantle Highway will not suffer the same fate.
