A cargo ship carrying nearly 3,800 vehicles and building automobiles is prone to proceed burning for days, in line with the Dutch coast guard, which is main efforts to include the blaze.
BMW and Mercedes-Benz every have a number of hundred vehicles among the many cargo aboard the Fremantle Freeway, which caught fireplace off the coast of the Netherlands after midnight Wednesday.
One crew member died and others have been injured and brought from the scene by helicopters and lifeboats, authorities mentioned.
The fireplace was nonetheless ablaze with the scenario steady as of 12:30 p.m. Amsterdam time Thursday, a coast guard spokesperson mentioned.
Towing or salvage operations can solely happen after the hearth is put out, in line with the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Administration.
Extinguishing the hearth may cause stability issues because of an excessive amount of water within the ship, the coast guard mentioned, including that it’s not but attainable for folks to board. The reason for the blaze continues to be unknown.
The Panama-flagged Fremantle Freeway was en path to Port Stated, Egypt, after a latest cease within the German port of Bremerhaven, in line with ship-tracking information compiled by Bloomberg. Shoei Kisen Kaisha, the Japanese firm that owns the vessel, mentioned the ultimate vacation spot for the service was Singapore.
Twenty-five of the two,857 vehicles on board have been electrical automobiles, a spokesperson for the Dutch coast guard mentioned, citing the cargo checklist they obtained.
The ship has a complete of three,783 automobiles and machines on board, in line with a spokesman for Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, the ship’s constitution and operator.
There are a number of hundred BMW and Mini vehicles on board, in addition to roughly 300 Mercedes-Benz automobiles, representatives for the businesses mentioned.
Ford Motor, Stellantis, Renault and Nissan didn’t have any automobiles on the vessel, firm spokespeople mentioned. Toyota mentioned it’s unlikely the automaker had cargo on board.
A spokesperson from Volkswagen Group mentioned the corporate was actively investigating however was unable to supply additional data. Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The coast guard couldn’t affirm whether or not there was a gas leak from the ship, although authorities took some precautionary measures to stop one, the spokesperson mentioned.
The ship was navigating close to the Wadden Sea UNESCO World Heritage Website, which is the most important unbroken system of intertidal sand and dust flats on the planet. Such environments are extremely delicate and may very well be broken ought to an oil spill happen.
If gas have been to leak, it could unfold to the north and never towards the Wadden Islands, because of “the present and foreseen wind and wave course for the approaching days,” Dutch Infrastructure Minister Mark Harbers mentioned in a letter to parliament. An oil-recovery vessel is on website to take fast motion if the vessel have been to leak gas, Harbers mentioned.
The incident is paying homage to a maritime catastrophe final 12 months, when a cargo ship that caught fireplace within the Atlantic transporting roughly 4,000 VW automobiles to the U.S. sank in tough seas, regardless of efforts to tow it to security after burning for greater than per week.
The ten-year-old Fremantle Freeway, which measures about 200 meters (656 ft) in size, can carry as many as 4,000 vehicles, in line with information compiled by Bloomberg.