Almost 500 electric cars are on board the ship, which has been burning off the coast of the Netherlands since Wednesday, the ANP agency reported on Friday after receiving information from the ship’s operator. Most of them are Mercedes-Benz.
A ship can burn for several weeks, and as a result of extinguishing the fire, it is at risk of flooding. If it sinks to the bottom, there will be a threat of ecological disaster.
At first there was confusion about the cause of the fire. Reuters reports that the fire started with one of the electric cars. The Dutch Coast Guard denied this. According to her, the reasons are still being established.
However, the same service reported on Wednesday evening that the “electrician” transported on board was the first to catch fire. How exactly the car caught fire has not yet been established.
Fremantle is feared to sink after being flooded with water while fighting the fire. If the unit disappears below the surface, it threatens an ecological disaster.
It ran into trouble overnight, about 27km (17 miles) north of the Ameland in the Wadden Sea, on the edge of the North Sea designated a World Heritage site. Beachgoers vacationing there did not know that a sea disaster was taking place less than 30 km from them. All they could see on the horizon was a small dot and smoke.
Flights over the place are prohibited. In total, almost three thousand cars were transported on board. The cargo was served by 23 crew members from India. When they noticed the fire on board, seven of them jumped overboard. One person did not survive, others were hospitalized, but there is no threat to life.
According to the Coast Guard, the firefighting operation in the North Sea could last “several days or even weeks”. This is hindered by the “nature of the cargo being transported”.
