A cargo ship carrying nearly 3,000 automobiles — about 300 of them made by Mercedes-Benz Group AG — is on fire off the coast of the Netherlands while the Dutch coast guard fights to contain the blaze.
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A cargo ship carrying nearly 3,000 automobiles — about 300 of them made by Mercedes-Benz Group AG — is on fire off the coast of the Netherlands while the Dutch coast guard fights to contain the blaze.
A crew member aboard the Fremantle Highway died as the fire engulfed the ship early Wednesday. All 23 people on board, including several injured crew and the person who died, were removed from the ship by helicopters and lifeboats, authorities said.
The situation was unchanged and stable as of 12 p.m. New York time, and a towing or salvage operation can only take place after the fire is put out, according to the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.
The Panama-flagged Fremantle Highway was en route to Port Said, Egypt, after a recent stop in the German port of Bremerhaven, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
Shoei Kishen Kaisa Ltd., the Japanese firm that owns the vessel, said it was cooperating with local authorities and expressed condolences for the crew member whose life was lost. The final destination for the vehicles is Singapore, the company said.
“We will continue to do our utmost to extinguish the fire and work to resolve the situation as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.
Twenty-five of the 2,857 cars on board were electric vehicles, a spokesperson for the Dutch coast guard said. One of the EVs may have caught on fire and the blaze could last for days, Dutch news agency ANP reported, citing an unidentified coast guard official.
It wasn’t immediately clear which automakers other than Mercedes had their vehicles on board. Ford Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. didn’t have any vehicles on the vessel, company spokespeople said, and representatives from Stellantis NV, Toyota Motor Corp. and Renault SA said it’s unlikely they had cargo onboard.
A spokesperson from Volkswagen AG said the company was actively investigating the matter but was unable to provide further information.
General Motors Co. and BMW AG weren’t immediately able to provide information. Tesla Inc. didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The coast guard couldn’t confirm whether there was a fuel leak from the ship, though authorities took some precautionary measures to prevent one, the spokesperson said.
The ship was navigating near the Wadden Sea UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world. Such environments are highly sensitive and could be damaged should an oil spill occur.
A temporary flight ban was imposed above the area where the ship is on fire.
The incident on Wednesday was reminiscent of a maritime disaster last year, when a cargo ship that caught fire in the Atlantic transporting roughly 4,000 Volkswagen vehicles to the US sank in rough seas despite efforts to tow it to safety after burning for more than a week.
The latest incident took place around midnight, the coast guard said. The vessel was sailing 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of Ameland, one of the northern Wadden islands, when the fire broke out.
The stricken vessel is in a controlled position and emergency services are looking at ways to limit the damage as much as possible, a spokesperson for the coast guard told Bloomberg by phone.
The 10-year-old ship, measuring about 200 meters (656 feet) in length, can carry as many as 4,000 cars, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
- From 2022: Allianz Warns of Car Ship Pain After 4,000 Vehicles Lost at Sea
–With assistance from William Wilkes, Monica Raymunt, Ryan Beene and Richard Clough.
(Updates with ship owner’s statement starting in fourth paragraph)
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