2023-07-29 09:09:49
Updated: 07/28/202308:28
One person dies in a fire on board a ship off Ameland. Now an environmental catastrophe is threatening in the North Sea due to the 3000 loaded cars.
Ameland – “One following the other jumped,” reports Willard Molenaar, captain of the lifeboat that was first at the scene of the accident. “They were really in trouble, otherwise you wouldn’t just jump so low.” He and his team rescued seven people from the sea. The rest were taken off the freighter by helicopter and taken to hospitals.
According to the Dutch online newspaper, there were on the ship The Telegraph a total of 23 crew members who came from India. “It was a very large fire with a lot of smoke. It was a very serious situation on board,” the Coast Guard said The Telegraph. In dangerous situations like this, the captain of a ship decides whether an evacuation is necessary. And that’s exactly what happened in the end.
North Sea freighter on fire: more than 3000 cars on board – photos show the inferno
North Sea freighter on fire: more than 3000 cars on board – photos show the inferno
Fire on a freighter off Ameland: environmental catastrophe threatens due to 3,000 sinking cars
Around midnight, the fire broke out on the “Fremantle Highway” off the island of Ameland, the Coast Guard reported. The crew tried to contain the fire. But it spread so quickly that the crew had to leave the approximately 200 meter long ship. Some people had to jump overboard – regarding 30 meters down.
The freighter loaded with almost 3,000 cars caught fire off the coast of the island of Ameland in the Netherlands. Its crew had to flee head over heels from the ship, one person was killed. The remaining 22 were, according to the German Press Agency (dpa) luckily only slightly injured. The fire-fighting and salvage ships were quickly on the spot. But the fire is difficult to conquer: the lithium batteries in the electric cars make it difficult to put out the fire, according to a coast guard spokesman.
“Fremantle Highway” freighter off Ameland “too unstable” for towing due to fire
Clouds of smoke are still hanging over the sea, flames are shooting out of the car freighter off Ameland. About 27 kilometers off the coast, the rescue workers are now trying to prevent the ship from sinking and thus prevent an environmental disaster. Because if the ship sinks, fuel, oil and the approximately 3,000 cars might get into the water and onto the seabed. “We are doing everything we can to prevent this,” a spokesman for the water authority told the radio station NOS. The rescue workers prepared “for all scenarios”.
A Coast Guard spokesman, Edwin Granneman, said salvaging the freighter was not that easy. The emergency cable that connects the freighter to a tugboat is not sufficient. “The situation is now too unstable to tow the ship away.” But thanks to the cable, the ship is no longer blocking the route to and from Germany.
A ship got into trouble off the Dutch North Sea island of Ameland. A huge fire broke out on the Fremantle Highway freighter, which has around 3,000 cars on board.
© Coast Guard Netherlands/dpa
Fire on freighter off Ameland in the North Sea: triggered by electric cars?
It is now speculated that the charged electric cars may have caused the fire. The industrial insurer Allianz (AGCS) recently warned of the increased risk of fire caused by transporting lithium-ion batteries on ships. The main causes of fires emanating 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 ignite once more. “Most ships have neither adequate protection nor sufficient early warning or extinguishing capabilities to fight such fires on the high seas,” commented shipping expert Justus Heinrich. (na/dpa)
List of rubrics: © Coast Guard Netherlands/dpa
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