The federal government warns in view of the still burning carcargo ship “Fremantle Highway” in Dutch waters before an environmental disaster in the North Sea and offers German help. “The unique Wadden Sea National Park is in serious danger,” said Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (55, Greens) on Thursday. “Germany will provide everything that can help.” Transport Minister Volker Wissing (53) made a similar statement. “The Havariekommando is prepared and will help in close coordination,” wrote the FDP politician on the short message service X, which used to be called Twitter. It is important to prevent an environmental catastrophe.
It cannot be ruled out that the crashed ship will sink. “Should that happen, large amounts of fuel and other environmentally harmful pollutants from the freighter’s cargo could pollute the sensitive ecosystem of the North Sea over a large area,” Lemke warned. The Wadden Sea National Park would then be endangered. The Dutch coast guard said they were preparing for all scenarios. This also includes the possibility that the 199 meter long ship will sink.
Minister sees no immediate danger of oil spill
However, experts have different assessments of the direct environmental hazards emanating from the burning freighter. According to the responsible Dutch minister, the risk of an oil spill for the Dutch Wadden Sea islands is low. If fuel should leak out of the freighter, it would spread north into the open sea, Minister for Infrastructure and Water Management, Mark Harbers (54), told Parliament in The Hague on Thursday. He relies on the forecasts for wind and currents.
Lars Tober from the Society for Safety Technology and Ship Safety in the Baltic Sea also did not want to join catastrophe scenarios at this point in time. “The bunker tanks are below the waterline, so there’s no danger there at first. And the fuel in the vehicles, that’s mostly petrol, which evaporates at the high temperatures, so it’s rather unlikely that fuel will escape there,” he said Ship safety expert on Thursday in the ZDF morning magazine. The batteries in the e-cars no longer played a role either, as he said they would only burn for about half an hour.
“The challenge now is that I keep the ship stable”
Lars Tober, expert from the Society for Safety Technology and Ship Safety Baltic Sea
“The challenge now is that I keep the ship stable, that it does not list, that it does not capsize and that there are no cracks in the outer skin,” Tober continues.
Specialists on site, 3783 cars on board
According to the shipping company, the burning car freighter has more cars on board than initially known. A spokesman for the Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha told the German Press Agency in Tokyo on Thursday that he had loaded 3,783 cars. The Dutch coast guard had previously spoken of 2857 cars, 25 of which were electric cars.
The fire that broke out on the Fremantle Highway on Tuesday evening has not yet been extinguished. “The fire on board is still going on,” the Dutch coast guard announced on Thursday morning. Specialists from a salvage company are on a ship near the unfortunate freighter to get an idea. The Coast Guard also announced that it would monitor the situation by plane.
Causes of damage on the high seas
The fire is also so difficult to extinguish because you can’t get to it from the inside, said ship safety expert Tober. “It’s a big shell with a fire on the inside. I can only put water on it from the outside, so I can’t get in, I don’t have an opening where I can use extinguishing agents anywhere.”
The ship, flying the Panama flag, had left Bremerhaven and was supposed to continue to Singapore. The ship was around 27 kilometers north of the island of Ameland when the fire broke out on Tuesday evening. The 23 people on board, including 21 crew members from India, had to leave the freighter head over heels. One person was killed, the other 22 were slightly injured, according to Dutch information.
According to Mercedes-Benz, around 350 cars from the car manufacturer are on board the damaged ship. The company is in close coordination with the transport service provider. According to the Federal Environment Ministry, there are also 1,600 tons of heavy fuel oil and a further 200 tons of marine diesel on board as pollutants. In addition, there are possible tank contents of the transported vehicles as well as combustion residues and extinguishing water.
Transport risk due to electronic freight
The risks of transporting electric cars on ships had come into focus worldwide at the latest with the spectacular disaster of the “Felicity Ace”. E-vehicles had also caught fire on the car carrier. The fire could not be extinguished at that time, the whole ship sank – including thousands of electric vehicles and luxury cars of the brands Porsche or Bentley, which have since been more than 3,000 meters below the surface of the water near the Portuguese Azores.
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“In general, electronic components and especially electric vehicles pose a risk for every transport,” said Manfred Santen, a chemist in the marine protection team at the environmental protection organization Greenpeace, at the time. in an interview with manager magazin. Because of the high energy of charged batteries, any resulting fires are difficult to extinguish.