Nearly 500 electric cars on board freighter burning near Terschelling

There are not 25, but 498 electric cars on board the burning freighter Fremantle Highway, the Japanese shipping company K-Line confirmed to ANP. The ship has a total of 3,783 cars on board, all of them brand new, the shipping company said.

The increased number of electric cars could affect the emergency service’s plans to extinguish the massive fire on the cargo ship currently burning north of Terscheling. Due to their battery packs, electric cars can burn for a long time and is complicated to extinguish.

Vanuit het kustwacht✈️ zijn ook nieuwe videobeelden gemaakt van de #FremantleHighway. Updates worden gedeeld op ons liveblog (evenals video- en fotomateriaal voor de media): https://t.co/gWwfcKau0z pic.twitter.com/P6G0jZLRjM

— Kustwacht Nederland (@Kustwacht_nl) July 27, 2023

The Fremantle Highway has been burning since the early hours of Wednesday morning. The fire started when the ship was in the North Sea, some 30 kilometers north of Ameland. Emergency services evacuated the 23 crew members. One of them died.

The ship is currently “reasonably stable” about 17 kilometers north of Terscheling, the Coast Guard told NOS. The German tugboat Fairplay30 is currently connected to the Fremantle Highway and keeping it in place as far as the wind and currents allow. It took over the emergency towage connection from the Hunter on Thursday.

Four other ships are also in the area, including a Rijkswaterstaat vessel ready to respond if the Fremantle Highway starts leaking fuel, and the Arca, which is guiding shipping traffic in the area.

Until yesterday, the emergency services continuously cooled the burning ship but stopped doing that to prevent too much water from entering the vessel.