Advertising
Supported by
The shipment was carrying about 3,000 vehicles near the Dutch island of Ameland in the North Sea when the fire broke out Tuesday night, officials said.
By Michael Levenson
One team member was killed and 22 others injured in a fire at a giant shipment carrying about 3,000 cars off the Dutch North Sea island of Ameland, officials said Wednesday.
The fire was reported shortly before Tuesday and was still burning Wednesday, the Dutch coast guard said. A video released by the Coast Guard shows smoke billowing from the 656-foot vessel, as one of many vessels that responded to the blaze. He sprinkled it with water.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Lea Versteeg told The Associated Press that the freighter, named Fremantle Highway, was carrying 2,857 cars and an additional 25 electric cars.
The cause of the fire is known, the coast guard said, adding that specialists from a maritime salvage company are assessing the situation, which they described as “stable for the moment. “
The coast guard said the ship, which had just set sail from the German port of Bremerhaven, about 17 miles north of Ameland, one of the West Frisian islands off the northern coast of the Netherlands, was carrying 23 crew members when the fire broke out.
After the fire started, some team members jumped into the water and were rescued in lifeboats, the coast guard said. One team member died, he said, adding that it’s unclear how.
Twenty-two other team members were treated for respiratory problems, burns and fractures, authorities said. The deceased team member is Indian, according to the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands, which said it contacted the sailor’s relatives and 20 of the injured. seamen.
The Dutch coast guard said it feared pouring too much water on the ship to extinguish the fire would make it unstable. It is not yet possible, the company added, to send fighters to the ship to fight the fire.
Ameland is located in the UNESCO-listed Wadden Sea off the coasts of Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, which the United Nations describes as the world’s largest uninterrupted formula of marshes and intertidal sand.
Considered one of the world’s top spaces for migratory birds, the Wadden Sea is also home to marine mammals such as harbor seals, grey seals and harbour porpoises.
Officials at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management said they were responding strongly to the fire.
“Together with the Coast Guard and rescue companies, we are examining what needs to happen if the vessel is to be towed and recovered,” officials said in a statement. “We will do everything we can to limit the damage to other people and the environment as much as is imaginable. “
It was unclear what kind of cars were on board the ship, though Volkswagen expressed “great sadness” over the death of a team member and added that it could not provide additional information.
The fire occurred just weeks after two firefighters died in a fire aboard an Italian shipment loaded with 1,200 cars in Port Newark, New Jersey. The patience of the fire, which lasted five days, led to speculation that some of the cars sent were electric cars equipped with lithium-ion batteries.
But Beth Rooney, port director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said this month that the ship’s manifest indicated there were no cars on board.
In March 2022, a ship carrying some 4,000 cars sank about 400 miles off the Azores after burning for two weeks. That ship, the Felicity Ace, had been at sea for six days after leaving Emden, Germany, for the port of Davisville. Rhode Island, when a fire broke out in the winery. No team members were injured.
Michael Levenson joined The Times in December 2019. In the past, he was a reporter for the Boston Globe, where he covered local, state and national politics and existing issues. Learn more about Michael Levenson
Advertising