An electric car is suspected to be the cause of a fire on a cargo ship off the Netherlands in which one crew member died, amid fears the blaze could burn for days and threaten nearby natural sites.
The cargo aboard the vessel includes electric vehicles and the ship's owners told Dutch media that one of them is thought to have sparked the blaze.
The Japanese owners, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, said the vessel, Fremantle Highway, had 3,000 vehicles onboard and was en route to its final destination in Singapore when the fire broke out.
"We are now trying to extinguish the fire in cooperation with the local authorities of (the) Netherlands, the salvor and the ship management company," it said.
The company told the NOS public broadcaster "there is a good chance that the fire started with electric cars," of which some 25 were on board.
"But we are not entirely sure of the cause, we are waiting for the investigation."
Rescue personnel received a call early today reporting a fire about 14.5 nautical miles off the northern Dutch island of Ameland.
All 23 crew members were taken to safety, but one person died and several were injured, according to the Netherlands Coastguard.
It is believed that some of the crew jumped into the water to escape the flames.
"The fire could still burn for days," an official said.
"The ship is being cooled to keep it stable. Only the side of the ship is being sprayed, not the deck."
The Fremantle Highway is close to Ameland, one of an archipelago of ecologically sensitive islands situated in the Waddensee area just north of the Dutch mainland.
The Waddensee area spanning the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has a rich diversity of more than 10,000 aquatic and terrestrial species.
This included more than 140 species of fish of which some 20 spent their entire life in the tidal areas along the islands' famous mud flats.
The area also has a large seal and porpoise population.
Should the Fremantle Highway sink, "it would be a disaster of the highest order," the daily tabloid De Telegraaf said.
Salvage vessels are on the scene trying to put out the blaze and prevent the ship from sinking, the coastguard said.
A tug vessel has managed to attach a cable to the vessel to prevent it from drifting and blocking an important sailing route into Germany.
The Fremantle Highway is an 18,500-tonne car carrier ship and was travelling between Bremerhaven in Germany and Port Said in Egypt when the blaze broke out, according to the marinetraffic.com website.
The injured sailors, mainly from India, were taken to the northern towns of Lauwersoog and Eelde and left in the care of paramedics there.
"They all suffered from breathing problems, but none are in serious danger," a safety official of the Drenthe region said.
"The sailors were also treated for burns and broken bones," she added.
"Currently several parties including salvagers and the Dutch authorities are looking at minimising the damage as much as possible," the coastguard said.
The International Maritime Organisation, which sets out regulation for safety at sea, plans to evaluate new measures for ships transporting electric vehicles next year in light of the growing number of fires on cargo ships, a spokesperson said.
"Electric cars burn just as much as combustion engine cars. When batteries overheat and a so-called 'thermal runaway' occurs, then it gets dangerous," said Uwe-Peter Schieder, master mariner and representative of the German Insurance Association.
"A chemical reaction in the battery produces gases which inflate the battery."
New rules under consideration could take years to implement, but may include specifications on the types of water extinguishers available on boats and limitations on the amount a battery can be charged, which impacts flammability.
Around 350 of the vehicles on board were Mercedes-Benz cars, the company said.
The incident is the latest of several fires in recent times on car carriers.
Earlier this month, two New Jersey firefighters were killed and five injured battling a blaze on a cargo ship carrying hundreds of vehicles.
There were no electric cars on that vessel, the operator said.
A fire destroyed thousands of luxury cars, some electric with lithium-ion batteries, on a ship off the coast of Portugal's Azores islands in February last year.
Early in 2019, around 340 containers tumbled off one of the world's largest container ships after a storm, covering pristine coastline with plastic and polystyrene close to where the Fremantle Highway is located.
The most serious incident in recent times off the busy Dutch coast happened in December 2012 when the Bahamian-flagged car carrier Baltic Ice collided with a container ship and sank, killing 11 sailors.
