A cargo ship carrying almost 3,800 cars and construction vehicles is likely to continue burning for days, according to the Dutch coast guard, which is leading efforts to contain the blaze.
BMW and Mercedes-Benz each have several hundred cars among the cargo aboard the Fremantle Highway, which caught fire off the coast of the Netherlands after midnight Wednesday.
One crew member died and others were injured and taken from the scene by helicopters and lifeboats, authorities said.
The fire was still ablaze with the situation stable as of 12:30 p.m. Amsterdam time Thursday, a coast guard spokesperson said.
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 too much water in the ship, the coast guard said, adding that it’s not yet possible for people to board. The cause of the blaze 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, the Japanese company that owns the vessel, said the final destination for the carrier was Singapore.
Twenty-five of the 2,857 cars on board were electric vehicles, a spokesperson for the Dutch coast guard said, citing the cargo list they received.
The ship has a total of 3,783 vehicles and machines on board, according to a spokesman for Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, the ship’s charter and operator.
There are several hundred BMW and Mini cars on board, as well as roughly 300 Mercedes-Benz vehicles, representatives for the companies said.
Ford Motor, Stellantis, Renault and Nissan did not have any vehicles on the vessel, company spokespeople said. Toyota said it’s unlikely the automaker had cargo on board.
A spokesperson from Volkswagen Group said the company was actively investigating but was unable to provide further information. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
The coast guard could not 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,” Dutch Infrastructure Minister Mark Harbers said in a letter to parliament. An oil-recovery vessel is on site to take rapid action if the vessel were to leak fuel, Harbers said.
The incident is reminiscent of a maritime disaster last year, when a cargo ship that caught fire in the Atlantic transporting roughly 4,000 VW vehicles to the U.S. sank in rough seas, despite efforts to tow it to safety after burning for more than a week.
The 10-year-old Fremantle Highway, which measures about 200 meters (656 feet) in length, can carry as many as 4,000 cars, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.