The fire which has been burning on a car carrier off the Dutch coast has lessened in intensity and salvagers have been able to board the ship to secure stronger tow lines, authorities said on Friday.
The fire on the Panamanian-registered Fremantle Highway, which was carrying new cars, resulted in the death of an Indian crew member and injury of seven others who jumped overboard to escape the flames.
Dutch water board Rijkswaterstaat said measurements by the salvage company showed that temperatures aboard the ship had dropped sharply by morning yesterday, and while the fire is still burning, less smoke is now being generated.
The lower temperatures allowed salvage company staff to briefly board the Fremantle to attach new tow lines at the top of the ship, which allow better control of the vessel.
“Rijkswaterstaat is considering different scenarios for the next steps,” the agency said in a statement.
Ship charter company K Line said yesterday that there were 3,783 vehicles on board the ship – including 498 battery electric vehicles, significantly more than the 25 initially reported.
A Tokyo-based spokesperson for K Line (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha), which had chartered the vessel, declined to say anything about the car brands, including whether it included any cars from Japanese manufacturers.
The Dutch coastguard said on its website on Thursday that the cause of the fire was unknown, but an emergency responder is heard in a recording released by Dutch broadcaster RTL saying that “the fire started in the battery of an electric car”.
Ship owner K Line has said that there was a “good chance that the fire started with electric cars”, but added that the cause still needs to be investigated.
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 has said.
The 199m (653’) Fremantle is drifting about 17km from the northernmost Dutch coast, the coastguard said. It was travelling from Germany to Egypt.
The ship remained close to Terschelling and Ameland, which are part of an archipelago of ecologically sensitive islands in the Wadden Sea.
The area spanning the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark has been declared a Unesco World Heritage Site and has a rich diversity of over 10,000 aquatic and terrestrial species.
“It seems that the situation on the ship has stabilised somewhat,” Heidi Bunicich, spokeswoman for the Ameland municipality told AFP. “But of course we are very concerned. We have emergency plans in place to deal with various scenarios.”