The car carrier burning off the Dutch coast since Tuesday night is carrying nearly 500 new electric vehicles (EVs), ship charter company “K” Line said on Friday, significantly more than the 25 initially reported by the coastguard.
The fire on the Panamanian-registered Fremantle Highway resulted in the death of an Indian crew member and injury of seven others who jumped overboard to escape the flames.
There were 3,783 vehicles on board, including 498 battery EVs, a Tokyo-based spokesperson for “K” Line (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha), which had chartered the vessel, said.
He declined to say anything about the car brands, including whether it included cars from Japanese manufacturers.
The coastguard said on its website on Thursday the cause of the fire was unknown, but an emergency responder is heard in a recording released by Dutch broadcaster RTL saying “the fire started in the battery of an electric car”.
Carrier ablaze off Dutch coast is carrying almost 500 electric cars
The car carrier burning off the Dutch coast since Tuesday night is carrying nearly 500 new electric vehicles (EVs), ship charter company “K” Line said on Friday, significantly more than the 25 initially reported by the coastguard.
The fire on the Panamanian-registered Fremantle Highway resulted in the death of an Indian crew member and injury of seven others who jumped overboard to escape the flames.
There were 3,783 vehicles on board, including 498 battery EVs, a Tokyo-based spokesperson for “K” Line (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha), which had chartered the vessel, said.
He declined to say anything about the car brands, including whether it included cars from Japanese manufacturers.
The coastguard said on its website on Thursday the cause of the fire was unknown, but an emergency responder is heard in a recording released by Dutch broadcaster RTL saying “the fire started in the battery of an electric car”.
EV lithium-ion batteries burn with twice the energy of a normal fire and maritime officials and insurers say the industry has not kept up with the risks.
An investigation has been launched by the Panama Maritime Authority and the Netherlands is assisting the inquiry, the Dutch Safety Board said.
The 199-metre Fremantle, which is still burning, is drifting about 17km from the northernmost Dutch coast, the coastguard said. It was on the way from Germany to Egypt.
The islands are on the northernmost tip of the Netherlands and comprise part of the Wadden Sea, a vast area of tidal flats and marshland stretching along Germany and Denmark that is on Unesco's World Heritage list.
MORE: