Big fire on a cargo ship: 500 electric cars were on board

Substantial updates have arrived on the Fremantle Highway, .... the cargo ship evacuated on the night between 25 and 26 July 2023 due to a major fire that broke out on board. In the fire, one of the crew members who rushed to try to put out the flames, which are still present even if the fire would have lost its intensity, lost his life. The maritime authorities of the Netherlands are still working to avert a possible environmental disaster off the islands of Ameland and Terschelling, two of the eight islands (three uninhabited) between the Wadden Sea and the North Sea. The cargo ship has been engulfed in flames for three days. The cooling operations are suspended due to the quantity of water present on the ship, which risks overturning.

Although the fire has lost its intensity, its complete extinction remains complicated due to the large number of electric cars being transported. Transport company K Line, which chartered the ship, told AFP (Agence France-Presse) that there were 3,783 cars on board, 498 of which were electric. A decidedly higher number than the 25 out of 2,857 provided to the press on Thursday 27 July by the Dutch authorities, who reiterated on 28 July that they still did not have information on the exact number of vehicles on board the ship.