Cargo ship caught ablaze off Dutch coast, 1 dead and more injured, coast guard says

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Aerial footage shows fire blazing on cargo ship off Dutch Coast

Rescue ships spray water on the Panama registered Freemantle Highway, which was carrying nearly 3,000 vehicles from Germany to Egypt when it caught fire Tuesday night.

A ship carrying nearly 3,000 vehicles went up in flames off the Dutch coast Wednesday, with one person dead and several more injured, the coast guard said.

The fire started on Tuesday night on the 653-foot, Panama-registered Fremantle Highway, which was transporting cars from Germany to Egypt. Several crew members were forced to jump overboard to escape the flames. 

Rescue ships were sent to extinguish the fire with streams of water, but using too much water could cause the ship to sink, the Dutch coast guard said, per Reuters. A salvage vessel hooked on to the ship to keep it from drifting in the North Sea. 

"The fire is most definitely still not controlled. It's a very hard fire to extinguish, possibly because of the cargo the ship was transporting," said Edwin Versteeg, a spokesperson for the Dutch Department of Waterways and Public Works.

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Smoke rises as a fire broke out on the cargo ship Fremantle Highway at sea on July 26, 2023. One crew member died in the flames and several more were injured, the Dutch coast guard said. (Coastguard Netherlands/Handout via REUTERS)

The coast guard said on its website that the cause of the fire was unknown, but a coast guard spokesperson had earlier told Reuters it began near an electric car.

The coast guard said the Fremantle, which had departed from the port of Bremerhaven, had been towed out of shipping lanes and could sink. It was 17 miles north of the Dutch island of Ameland when the fire started.

First responder Willard Molenaar, with the Royal Dutch Rescue Company said the fire spread so rapidly that seven crew members from the 23-strong crew jumped overboard. 

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A Dutch coast guard image of the burning Fremantle Highway just off the coast of the Netherlands in the North Sea on July 26, 2023. (Coastguard Netherlands/Handout via REUTERS)

Molenaar told Dutch broadcaster NOS some people were injured jumping from the ship into the sea, while one crew member died in the flames. 

"There was lot of smoke and the fire spread quickly, much faster than expected," he said. "The people on board had to get off quickly ... We fished them out of the water."

The remaining crew members were airlifted off the burning ship by helicopter. Those injured were treated for breathing problems, burns and broken bones, local Dutch authorities said. 

Shoei Kisen, the Japanese ship leasing company that manages the Fremantle, told Reuters it was working with Dutch authorities to extinguish the fire. 

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A thermal camera shows the cargo ship Fremantle Highway, on fire at sea on July 26, 2023. (Coastguard Netherlands/Handout via REUTERS)

This incident was the latest of several recent fires on cargo ships carrying cars.

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Earlier in June, two New Jersey firefighters died and several more were injured combating a blaze aboard the Grande Costa d'Avorio, an Italian-flagged vessel carrying cars and other goods, at port in Newark. 

Another fire destroyed thousands of luxury cars on a ship off the coast of Portugal's Azores islands in February last year. 

Reuters contributed to this report.