Thick clouds of smoke hang over the Wadden Sea, flames blaze from a car freighter off the Dutch island of Ameland. A good 27 kilometers off the coast, rescue workers are trying with all their might to prevent the ship from sinking and thus an environmental disaster. But containing the fire is difficult. The Coast Guard even expects the fire to burn for days. There is great concern about a possible environmental catastrophe.
The Fremantle Highway freighter, loaded with almost 3000 cars, caught fire on Wednesday night. According to the Coast Guard, the source of the fire may have been the battery of an electric car. However, the exact cause has not yet been determined. The crew had to leave the ship head over heels. One person was killed and the other 22 were slightly injured. How exactly the crew member died is still unclear.
environmental disaster is imminent
If the ship sinks, fuel, oil and the approximately 3,000 cars could get into the water and onto the seabed – including 25 electric cars. “We’re doing everything we can to prevent that,” a spokesman for the water authority told radio station NOS. But the rescue workers were preparing “for all scenarios”. On the German side, too, the authorities are preparing for emergencies.
In the evening, the Coast Guard classified the situation as stable. Specialists from a salvage company flew over the burning ship in a helicopter. The experts from the responsible water authority would now jointly agree on a course of action.
Fire not yet under control
The salvage was difficult, said Coast Guard spokesman Edwin Granneman previously. The fire was not yet under control. “There is no extinguishing on the ship itself, nor is it from above on the ship,” said the spokesman. Because if there is too much water on the freighter, it could become unstable. “The ship can then capsize.” Therefore fire-fighting boats, including one from Germany, are now cooling the side edges of the ship.
At least it was possible to couple the freighter to a tug using an emergency cable. “The situation is now too unstable to tow the ship away,” said the spokesman. The cable is intended to prevent the freighter from blocking a shipping route to and from Germany. Shipowners have now also announced that shipping traffic is not affected.
Jumped down about 30 meters
According to the coast guard, the fire broke out around midnight on the “Fremantle Highway”, which sails under the Panama flag and was traveling from Bremerhaven. The crew tried to contain the fire. But it spread so quickly that she had to leave the approximately 200 meter long ship. Some had to jump overboard – about 30 meters down.
“One after the other jumped,” said Captain Willard Molenaar of the Ameland lifeboat, which was first at the scene of the accident, to radio station NOS. “They were really in need, otherwise you don’t just jump so low.” He and his crew rescued seven people from the sea. The rest were disembarked by helicopter and taken to several hospitals. Some had broken bones and had trouble breathing from the smoke. A human died. So far nothing has been announced about the circumstances of the death.
Lithium batteries make extinguishing work more difficult
Firefighting and salvage ships were quickly on the spot – help also came from Germany. The Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha said the ship should go to Singapore. The crew consisted of 21 Indian citizens. The Dutch Coast Guard spoke of 23 crew members. According to the shipping company, there was no evidence of oil pollution by the evening. The lithium batteries in the e-cars in particular made extinguishing work more difficult, said the spokesman for the coast guard.
Allianz’s industrial insurer (AGCS) recently warned of the increased risk of fire caused by transporting lithium-ion batteries on ships. The main causes of fires that start from the batteries are production defects, damaged battery cells or devices as well as overcharging or short circuits, the insurer writes in its latest shipping study. They are treacherous because they are difficult to extinguish and can spontaneously reignite. “Most ships have neither adequate protection nor sufficient early warning or extinguishing capabilities to fight such fires on the high seas,” said shipping expert Justus Heinrich.
Worry about serious environmental damage
Environmental organizations and mayors of the coastal regions are concerned about possible damage from oil or waste. “This could mean an environmental disaster for the North Sea and the Wadden Sea,” warned a spokesman for the De Noordzee Foundation. The mayor of the German North Sea island of Borkum also fears serious environmental damage. “The worst thing would be that the ship sinks and uncontrolled pollutants are washed into the sea,” said Jürgen Akkermann (independent) of the German Press Agency.
Some are now thinking back to the disaster of the container ship MSC Zoe 2019. At that time the ship lost 342 containers in the stormy North Sea on the way to Bremerhaven. Most shattered when they hit the water, causing tons of rubbish to drift onto the beaches.
