A cargo ship carrying nearly 3,000 automobiles - some of them made by Mercedes-Benz Group AG and BMW AG - burned for a second day near the Netherlands while the Dutch coast guard fought to contain the blaze.
A crew member aboard the Fremantle Highway died as the fire engulfed the ship after midnight Wednesday. All 23 people on board, including several injured crew and the person who died, were taken from the scene by helicopters and lifeboats, authorities said.
The fire was still ablaze with the situation stable as of 8:30 a.m. Amsterdam time Thursday, according to a coast guard spokesperson. Towing or salvage operations can only take place after the fire is put out, according to the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.
"Extinguishing the fire can cause stability problems due to water in the ship," the coast guard said, adding that it is not yet possible to put people on board the ship. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
The Panama-flagged Fremantle Highway was en route to Port Said, Egypt, after a recent stop in the German port of Bremerhaven, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the Japanese firm that owns the vessel, said the final destination for the vehicles is Singapore.
Twenty-five of the 2,857 cars on board were electric vehicles, a spokesperson for the Dutch coast guard said. One of the EVs may have caught on fire and the blaze could last for days, Dutch news agency ANP reported, citing an unidentified coast guard official.
About 300 of the cars on board were made by Mercedes-Benz.
Ford Motor Co., Stellantis NV, Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. didn't have any vehicles on the vessel, company spokespeople said, and representatives from Toyota Motor Corp. said it's unlikely they had cargo on board.
A spokesperson from Volkswagen AG said the company was actively investigating the matter but was unable to provide further information. Tesla Inc. didn't respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for BMW confirmed the company had vehicles on the ship and didn't say how many.
The coast guard couldn't confirm whether there was a fuel leak from the ship, though authorities took some precautionary measures to prevent one, the spokesperson said.
The ship was navigating near the Wadden Sea UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world. Such environments are highly sensitive and could be damaged should an oil spill occur.
If fuel were to leak, it would spread to the north and not toward the Wadden Islands due to "the current and foreseen wind and wave direction for the coming days," said Dutch Infrastructure Minister Mark Harbers in a letter to the parliament. An oil recovery vessel is on site to take rapid action if the vessel were to leak fuel, Harbers said.
The incident that unfolded Wednesday was reminiscent of a maritime disaster last year, when a cargo ship that caught fire in the Atlantic transporting roughly 4,000 Volkswagen vehicles to the US sank in rough seas despite efforts to tow it to safety after burning for more than a week.
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.
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