The authorities of the Netherlands are still engaged, Friday, July 28, in a race against time, in order to prevent a possible ecological disaster off their northern coasts. The Fremantle Highway freighter, which carries hundreds of electric cars, is in the grip of a fire there, for the third day in a row, the origin of which remains unknown.
Transport company K Line, which chartered the ship, told Agence France-Presse on Friday that 3,783 new cars, including 498 electric vehicles, were on board. The Dutch coastguard, they say they do not yet have information on the exact number of gear present on the boat.
The cause of the fire has not yet been made public. According to the Japanese owner of the Fremantle Highway, the Shoei Kisen Kaisha group, quoted by Dutch radio NOS, one of the electric cars on board could be the source of the fire, which started shortly after midnight in the night. from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Private television RTL Nederland released on Thursday a recording of a radio transmission conversation of rescue teams, dating from the start of rescue operations on Wednesday. We hear one of their members claim that the fire started “in the battery of an electric car”.
The situation not “safe” enough to deploy a rescue team on board
The stricken vessel, which is now 17 kilometers north of the island of Terschelling, is still hooked up to a tug, aiming to maintain its position, the coast guard said in a statement on Friday.
Four other rescue boats are also on the scene, and a plane from the authorities continues to fly over the area, in order to take images of the boat. “Rescuers are monitoring the situation and gathering information for the purpose of a rescue plan,” the coast guard said.
If the blaze has lost intensity, the operations intended to put out the fire have however been suspended in order to prevent the ship from sinking, they said the day before in a previous press release. “The ship is no longer constantly cooled to prevent unnecessary water from entering the ship. This endangers the stability of the boat,” they added, adding that the situation is not yet “safe” enough to allow the deployment on board of a rescue team.
The Fremantle Highway, flying the Panamanian flag, drifted west. But the rescue took advantage of a change in the direction of the current on Thursday afternoon to modify its trajectory and prevent it from approaching the navigation channels, according to the coast guard.
The latest aerial images published by the latter show large piles of smoke continuing to escape from the boat. “On the video, damage is visible on the boat. This is peeling paint. No cracks or cavities have been observed so far,” the Coast Guard said.
The Fremantle Highway is an 18,500 tonne freighter, leaving the German port of Bremerhaven to reach Port Said, in Egypt, before heading back to Singapore, its final destination.
The Wadden Sea declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Coastguard spokesman Edwin Granneman told BNR radio on Thursday that “the risk of an environmental disaster is always present”, with a possible scenario “in which the boat turns over and sinks. Then there would be damage to the environment.”
The islands of Ameland and Terschelling, near which the Fremantle Highway is located, are part of a group of eight Dutch islands (five of which are inhabited) straddling the Wadden Sea and the North Sea, north of the Netherlands. Down. The Wadden Sea, which runs along a coastal region stretching from the Netherlands to Denmark, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and boasts a rich diversity of over 10,000 aquatic and terrestrial species.
Among the 23 crew members who were on board and were able to be evacuated, one sailor died – on a lifeboat, according to the NOS – and several others were injured. The crew is from India, according to Dutch news agency ANP.