The car freighter “Fremantle Highway”, which was severely damaged by a major fire, arrived safely in Eemshaven in the Netherlands on Thursday afternoon. It was pulled by two tugs and accompanied by other boats and a coast guard plane, as a reporter from the German Press Agency reported on site. German boats were also there.
A good week after the fire broke out, the approximately 200 meter long ship was towed for hours to the North Sea port on the Ems estuary. This eliminates the risk of oil contamination for the North Sea and the Wadden Sea.
For safety reasons, the freighter had to be brought to a safe port as quickly as possible. The ship is intact, but the fire has gone out, said a spokesman for the water authority. But there is a risk that flames will flare up again. And the ship was badly damaged. “You don’t want something like that on the open sea,” said the spokesman. The risks of oil leaks through cracks in the steel walls or even capsizing increased. And for the afternoon hard north-west wind was forecast.
Eemshaven is about 64 kilometers away from the previous anchorage off the island of Schiermonnikoog. East Frisian Emden is located on the opposite side of the Ems estuary. The ship should first be unloaded and pollutants disposed of. The salvors suspect that there is not much left of the around 3,800 new cars on board, including almost 500 electric cars.
The “Fremantle Highway” was on its way from Bremerhaven to Singapore when the fire broke out. The source of the fire was probably the battery of an electric car. But that’s not confirmed yet. A man from India had died during the evacuation of the ship. The remaining 22 crew members were rescued.
