Electric car causes cargo freighter disaster in the North Sea | DW News

A fire on a cargo ship resulted in the loss of one crew member's life and left several others injured, according to a statement by the Dutch coast guard on Wednesday. Officials said the vessel, thought to pose a major environmental risk if it sinks, "could still burn for days."

The Panama-registered Fremantle Highway was transporting 2,857 cars from the German port of Bremerhaven to Port Said in Egypt, when the blaze broke out.

At least seven crew members jumped overboard and were rescued from the water, while the rest were airlifted by helicopter, officials said. One of the 25 electric cars onboard caught fire, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported, citing a coast guard official.

The ship was still burning some 27 nautical miles (50 kilometers) north of the Dutch island of Ameland — located close to a major environmental and UNESCO heritage site.

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[arturzet]

This is our future: fear when another electric car catches fire in a shopping mall, passenger ferry or my garage...

[KrzysztofMazurek-tjie]

Title: electric car causes fire
Content: authorities still investigate if any of the 25 electric cars is linked to the fire...

That is terrible media work

[taniac]

Imagine if this were to happen on a car ferry with hundreds of passengers, there needs to be more regulations around transporting electrical vehicles and/or their batteries

[keithe.bilitsky]

I used to fly R/C aircraft and those tiny lithium batteries burn like heck. I can just imagine an electric car

[blakef]

3000 cars destroyed. At 40K each that would be around 120 million in cargo destroyed. Plus the ship. I don't know, 100 million? The insurance carrier just had a bad phone call. Just clean up the mess with public emergency responders, pass the cost to taxpayers and raise the cost of each vehicle sold and insurance by xyz dollars. Problem solved! Wow, this system works like a champ.

[jonpierson]

So, EVs are already starting to have a significant impact on the environment.

[markmd]

Someone waited their car half a year and now should wait another half year

[Agenamigo]

If you happen to buy an electric car, consider parking it outside your house. 😂

[ernopapp]

Lithium battery . If it burns, extinguishing a fire is impossible.

[EssexCountyPhoto]

The obsession with electric vehicles is causing environmental carastrophy...
Well done Greta, she must be so proud.

[voyloa]

How many combustion engine car fires have caused a ship to sink, NIL, this is the 2nd potential vessel to sink due to an EV car catching fire. As for EVs you cannot put an EV out when it bursts into flames, resulting in the adjacent EV cars catching fire, none of which can be extinguished. This is the reason EVs should be BANNED from Roll On Roll Off (RO-RO) Car Ferries and the Channel Tunnel, this EV disaster has resulted in the death of 1 person and life changing injuries of others, consider the Death Toll on a Ro-Ro Car Ferry…

[stewartboyd]

500 EV's, all that needs to be said!!! Not 25

[basbekjenl]

You don't transport internal combustion engine vehicles with their fuel in the fueltank, because that is a fire hazard.
Those batteries in EV's should also travel empty so there is no risk of fire.
Clearly someone didn't care enough to check and loaded a potential bomb onto the ship and caused this mess. Qualified personnel would have avoided this mess, but qualified personnel require higher wages. I wonder who will be blamed for this one

[Marie-cqtd]

Carno ship..
Wish all of the victims the best. I’m glad most people were able to be rescued

[truepersona]

WHO SHOULD PAY FOR THE DESTRUCTION !?!
An EV battery is the biggest man-made environmental disaster which is a MILLION TIMES more TOXIC than gasoline engine catching fire.

[stephenhall]

Sad about crew consequences but I just cannot help wondering if the rush to EVs and Germany's inordinate greed and complacency has had a warning from nature.
The fact that Germany burns lignite to generate electricity when it cannot smuggle in sanctioned Russian gas is an interesting frill to the petticoat.

[reinaldodesflamino]

The "green" cars causing ecological negative impact?

[AlexdaCunha]

In the video it is said they are still investigating if the fire is linked to an electric car. The title says otherwise... hmmm

[Weesperbuurt]

Misleading title. They haven’t proven yet that an electric car caused the fire.

[Tobi-lnxr]

Typical issue with Teslas…
But nobody cared until now.