Car-carrier ship ablaze off Dutch coast; One crew fatality

A crew member aboard a large car-carrier vessel died as a fire early Wednesday engulfed the ship off the coast of the Netherlands while the Dutch coast guard fought to contain the blaze.

All 23 seafarers on the Fremantle Highway, including the fatality and several injured crew, were rescued by helicopters and lifeboats, authorities said. “The crew tried to put out the fire themselves, but were unsuccessful,” Dutch coast guard said in a statement on its website. “The fire continued to spread, prompting an evacuation.”

The 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 Fremantle Highway is a Panama-flagged vehicle carrier that was on route to Port Said in Egypt after a recent stop in the German port of Bremerhaven, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

The ship was still on fire as of 11:15 a.m. local time, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard told Bloomberg by phone. The stricken vessel is in a controlled position and emergency services are looking at ways to limit the damage as much as possible, the spokesperson said.

The Dutch newspaper Het Algemeen Dagblad reported that the ship was carrying 2,857 cars, of which 25 were electric vehicles. One of the electric cars may have caught on fire, Dutch news agency ANP reported, citing an unnamed coast guard official.

At midday, the coast guard said the cause is still unknown.

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.