A fire blazed on a Japanese car carrier Fremantle Highway off the Dutch coast with nearly 3,000 vehicles on board on Wednesday, killing one member of the crew and injuring several others.
Several crew members were forced to jump overboard after the fire began on Tuesday night on the 199-metre Panama-registered cargo ship as it was en route from Germany to Egypt.
The Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said in a social media post the fire had “resulted in the death of an Indian seafarer and injuries to the crew”, and that it was in touch with family of the deceased. Japan’s Shoei Kisen, which owns the ship, said the entire crew of 21 was Indian.
Rescue ships sprayed water onto the burning vessel to cool it down, but using too much water risked its sinking, the Dutch coastguard said. It was attached to a salvage vessel to prevent it drifting.
The fire might last for several days, Dutch news agency ANP reported, citing the coastguard. Smoke continued to billow from the vessel near the northern Dutch island of Ameland.
“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.
The coastguard said on its website the cause of the fire was unknown, but a coastguard spokesperson said it began near an electric car. Roughly 25 out of 2,857 vehicles on the ship were electric.
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