Mercedes-Benz reports that 350 of its cars are onboard the Panama-registered ship, the Fremantle Highway, currently on fire at sea

NETHERLANDS

A fire has completely engulfed a container ship carrying 2,857 new cars. It’s been reported by the Dutch Coastguard that the fire began on the night of 25th July, Thursday, on the Panama-registered Fremantle Highway. The ship was transporting the vehicles from Germany to Egypt. The incident caused several crew to jump overboard and there has been one confirmed death. 

While rescue ships initially sprayed water onto the burning ship in an attempt to extinguish the flames, it was stopped as there was a real risk of completely flooding the ship and sinking it. As of Thursday 27th July a salvage vessel is hooked on to stop it from drifting into the shipping lanes along the northern coast of the Netherlands, west of Germany.

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that it has a shipment of approximately 350 cars in the hold, while Ford, Nissan, the Stellantis Group, Toyota, and Renault have collectively stated that they do not have any cargo onboard. 

Meanwhile, a Volkswagen spokesperson states that the company was actively investigating the matter.

Dutch broadcaster NOS has noted that all the crew were Indian, and that the fire was very likely to be of chemical origin. Unconfirmed reports put the fire as having started near an EV in the cargo hold, and that there were less than 30 EVs being shipped out of the entire cargo manifest. 

“The fire is most definitely still not controlled. It’s a very hard fire to extinguish, possibly because of the cargo the ship was transporting,” said Edwin Versteeg, a spokesperson for the Dutch Department of Waterways and Public Works.

Smoke is continuing to billow from the vessel, now positioned near the northern Dutch island of Ameland.

Willard Molenaar of the Royal Dutch Rescue Company (KNRM) one of the first rescuers at the scene,, was quoted as saying that the fire spread so quickly that seven crew members jumped overboard. Some people were injured jumping the long way down into the water, while one crew member died in the flames.

“There was a lot of smoke and the fire spread quickly, much faster than expected,” he said. “The people on board had to get off quickly, we fished them out of the water.”

A helicopter then airlifted the remaining people from the 23-member crew off the burning ship. The injured were being treated for breathing problems, burns, and broken bones.

The Dutch Coastguard, along with salvage experts and Shoei Kisen, the Japanese ship leasing company that manages the Fremantle, are trying to work out the next steps for the burning ship.

This incident comes even as the International Maritime Organisation announced plans to evaluate new measures for ships transporting electric vehicles next year in light of the growing number of fires on cargo ships. 

“When batteries overheat and a so-called ‘thermal runaway’ occurs, then it gets dangerous,” said Uwe-Peter Schieder, master mariner and representative of the German Insurance Association. “A chemical reaction in the battery produces gases which inflate the battery.” 

Such fires are very difficult to extinguish by conventional means, and in the case of the Fremantle Highway the ship could sink by the time the fire burns itself out. 

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