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 a large car-carrier vessel died as a fire early Wednesday engulfed the ship. All 23 seafarers on the Fremantle Highway, including the fatality and several injured crew, were rescued by helicopters and lifeboats, authorities said.
The incident was reminiscent of a maritime disaster last year, when a cargo ship that caught fire in the Atlantic transporting roughly 4,000 Volkswagen AG vehicles to the U.S. sank in rough seas despite efforts to tow it to safety after burning for more than a week.
A Volkswagen spokesman said it’s aware of the latest situation but unable to provide further information.
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 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 5:20 p.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.
At evening, the coast guard spokesperson said the cause is still unknown and couldn’t confirm if there was a fuel leak from the ship. A temporary flight ban was imposed above the area where the ship is on fire and the authorities also took some precautionary measures for a possible oil leak, the spokesperson said.
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.
