Around midnight on July 25, the Dutch coastguard received a report that a major fire broke out on the Fremantle Highway car carrier, which was sailing 27 kilometres north of Ameland at the time. The Dutch coastguard immediately activated a rescue operation after receiving a distress alert from the ship at midnight on the 25^th. SMIT Salvage were the first to board the Fremantle Highway after several consecutive days of cooling, and eventually assisted in towing it to the port of Eemshaven for unloading. Since, more information related to the fire, rescue and salvage is gradually being disclosed. The Association has sorted out the details published by the media in order to help Members concerned, but so far, an official investigation report has not yet been released.

I. Ship’s particulars

Fremantle Highway is a PCTC (Pure Car and Truck Carrier) owned by the Japanese tonnage provider Shoei Kisen Kaisha, while the vessel is technically managed by Wallem Shipmanagement Japanese and operated by "K"-Line. The ship is Panamanian-flagged and in NKK classification Society, P&I insurance is Japan P&I Association. This fire incident also drawn parallels with previous grounding of Ever Given, which caused the greatest traffic congestion in the Suez Canal of the century, is also the registered owner of Shoei Kisen Kaisha, the ship management company is Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, and the crew on board is also Indian nationals.

The ship, which is 199 m long with a beam of 32 m, moulded depth 21 m. There are 12 vehicle decks in the hold space with a maximum load capacity of 6,210 vehicles. In the accident time, the ship departed from Bremerhaven, Germany, to Port Said, Egypt, and eventually to Singapore.

A Tokyo-based spokesperson for K Line (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha) reported that there were 3,783 vehicles on board, including 498 battery electric vehicles. While Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz Group AG confirmed they have several hundred cars on the Fremantle Highway, neither have offered specific breakdowns by brand or model. BMW AG’s Rolls-Royce has a small number of its exclusive cars aboard the ship.

II. Salvage of life

While had 21 crew members on board, all Indian nationals, along with an Indian superintendent and a pilot. The crew members were evacuated by helicopters and lifeboats. Several members of the crew had to jump into the water to save themselves from the fire. According to the Dutch coastguard, one crew member died, and several were injured. The people on board were taken to Lauwersoog and Eelde airport. Sixteen injured people were then taken by ambulance to nearby hospitals, all with breathing problems.

III. Pollution Risk

According to the German Federal Environment Ministry, there were 1,600 tons of heavy fuel oil and a further 200 tons of marine diesel oil on board as ship fuel. The fire and potentially sinking ship was causing environmental risks, as Ameland is in the Wadden Sea area spanning the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a rich diversity of more than 10,000 aquatic and terrestrial species. Therefore, the fire incident also triggered concerns about environmental pollution in the North Sea countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. Dutch authorities have also deployed clean-up vessels to guard the area around the Fremantle Highway in preparation for a potential oil spill. Fortunately, the fire on the ship has been brought under control and no pollution accidents have been caused.

IV. Fire Fighting

The crew initially attempted to extinguish the fire themselves but were unsuccessful. The fire continued to spread, prompting an evacuation. The Dutch Coastguard sent the “Guardian” rescue ship and several other rescue boats and rescue aircraft to the scene after received a distress message from the ship. The ship’s hull was cooled by spraying water on the outside. German tugs and fire boats, Dutch water board Rijkswaterstaat and private rescue companies were also involved in the operation.

Dutch water board Rijkswaterstaat said measurements by the salvage company showed that temperatures aboard the ship had dropped sharply after three days of cooling, 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.

Richard Janssen, director of Smit Salvage, told local media that a large number of cars on the lower decks of the Fremantle Highway were still “intact” after teams inspected the ships from inside. He claimed that, upon visual inspection, the cars were in a reasonably normal condition. Also, Janssen said in an interview with a local radio station that the fire raged through decks six through eleven and that some of the cars were not destroyed due to deck five being empty. The investigators will be looking to confirm if the fire started on deck eight. He stressed that, despite the fire burning for days, the engine room also remained intact and that a salvage team would attempt to get some systems back online and pump the fuel. “That is an important contribution to the consideration that the shipowner will have whether to repair the ship or offer it for recycling,” said Janssen.

Boskalis Salvage Company told local Dutch press that the 500 EVs are among the 1,000 vehicles that “seem to be in good condition” and are “perfectly movable”. It has been reported in the local media that the lower four of twelve decks on the vessel are relatively undamaged, which is where the 1,000 salvageable vehicles (including the EVs) were located. Meanwhile, the four uppermost decks were so badly burned that Berdowski said it was difficult to access them, with the decks “totally fused with the cars”.

V. Salvage

After the fire burned for about six days, the ship was towed to a temporary anchorage 16 kilometers from the islands of Schiermonnikoog and Ameland in the North Sea. On August 1, 2023, the spokesman of Rijkswaterstaat said, continued its response to the incident and reports that the Fremantle Highway remains stable at its temporary anchorage with a tug connected. The oil recovery vessel, MS Arca, patrols nearby looking for any sign of oil pollution. So far there has been none. At its temporary anchorage away from shipping lanes, salvors from Multraship and Smit Salvage have been able to board the vessel for an initial inspection. Rijkswaterstaat reports that “there are no indications that there is still a fire” and the ship remains intact below the waterline.

During the entire tow to Eemshaven, the Dutch Coast Guard was monitoring the situation from the air and a salvage team was aboard the vessel to keep an eye on the status of the ship from inside. The ship was accompanied by eight vessels – Gustav Meyer, Arca, Multratug 20, Multrasalvor, Guardian, Barney, Fairplay 30, and Waterlines.

Ultimately, the ship was towed to Julianahaven, one of the four sections of the Eeemshaven port, on the Wagenborg quay after nine days fire out. To enable a smooth operation, the port was closed for all other shipping activities. After the ship was moored, the mayor of Groningen Koen Schuiling called for the Dutch Marine Fire Brigade to keep watch. Eleven firefighters – specialised in ship firefighting – are on-site if a fire flares up again. Ship’s oil has been pumped out at the Eemshaven port in Netherlands, where it was towed, to reduce any risk of oil spills. The OEMs of the cars involved, including Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, will then inspect the undamaged vehicles and instruct the salvage teams on whether they are to be removed. The Fremantle Highway can stay at the Eemshaven port until 14th October. After that, it will either be removed to another location for repairs or scrapped along with the wrecked cars. The freight loss on the ship is likely more than 300 million euros, according to the American economist Patrick Anderson.

After the hulk was towed into Eemshaven as a port of refuge as designated by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, SMIT and Multraship undertook the initial salvage operation. They removed as many as 1,000 undamaged cars from the lower decks as well as vehicles that had experienced fire damage but were structurally intact. Additional debris in the form of cars that melted into the upper decks remains aboard the ship.

KOOLE Contractors, an international industrial and maritime service company based in the Netherlands reportedly made an agreement with the Japanese owners of the Fremantle Highway taking ownership and overseeing the second stage of the salvage efforts. They have formed a team that is carrying out structural inspections to determine which sections of the ship need to be removed and replaced due to the fire. Reports are that sections of the structure from decks 5 to 12 were weakened by the extreme heat of the fire but that the lower decks and machinery spaces were undamaged. KOOLE also plans to further inspect the tanks to determine what remains aboard the ship.

VI. Reactions

While ship fires are a real concern for marine insurers and the shipping industry as a whole, there has never been a fire onboard a roll-on/roll-off vessel or PCTC that has been proven to have been caused by a factory-new EV, according to The International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI). “IUMI understands that the transportation of EVs raises certain risks that are different to those involved in carrying internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) but research suggests that the risks are not heightened or more dangerous,” the IUMI says. IUMI has long advocated for better fire detection and extinguishing systems which must be specifically tailored for different vessel types. “Focus must be on identifying risks and safety measures related to new energy vehicles such as EVs, how to mitigate these, and on engaging with class and regulators to develop necessary rules, standards and guidelines to ensure their safe transportation,” the IUMI states. “Work to this end is already on the agenda of the IMO’s Sub-Committee on Ship Systems and Equipment.”

A spokesperson for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said that, in light of the growing number of fires on cargo ships, IMO will announce new safety standards for those transporting electric vehicles in 2024. The guidelines could include specifications on how fully a battery can be charged. The IMO said that chemicals for extinguishing fires, special fire blankets, equipment such as battery-penetrating jet extinguishers, and bigger gaps left between electric vehicles on ships, could also become mandatory.

Christian Meyer, minister for the environment of Lower Saxony, a German coastline state, demanded better safety and environmental standards for commercial ships. High-risk ships should not take any coastal routes and thus endanger the Wadden Sea National Park.

The above article is based on media information and does not represent a formal investigation report of Fremantle Highway. For more information, please contact Managers of the Association.