A burning ship that has been burning for days off the Dutch coast with thousands of cars on board could be towed to another location before the end of the weekend, authorities said, trying to prevent a disaster since Tuesday. ecological.
In a statement, the Dutch coast guard said a safer towline had been established and a recovery team was able to board the stricken vessel. The ship may move to "a new temporary anchorage, as soon as smoke development and weather forecasts allow," she said.
The tow is likely to take 12 to 14 hours, according to a separate publication from the Dutch Infrastructure Ministry, which indicates that it will be moved 16 kilometers north of the island of Schiermonnikoog, a few tens of kilometers from its last official position.
The Panama-flagged freighter Fremantle, loaded with nearly 3,800 vehicles, including nearly 500 electric cars, caught fire last Tuesday. She was en route to Port Said, Egypt, and Singapore after a recent stopover in the German port of Bremerhaven, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The crew had to be rescued by helicopter and one person died amid efforts to extinguish the fire.
Last Friday the fire was still active but the smoke was clearing, the Dutch coast guard said.
At the time of the fire, the ship was 23 kilometers north of Terschelling, a city that is part of the West Frisian Islands, in an area declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, where there is a rich diversity of more than 10,000 aquatic species. and terrestrial.
"The ship is ... still intact below the waterline and is not listing," the Dutch National Institute for Water Management said on Friday, noting that the temperature on board the ship had dropped. abruptly and the intensity of the fire had decreased. "No direct consequences are expected for the Wadden Islands, their inhabitants and nature," the agency said of the operation.
At the moment, the cause of the fire is unknown. According to the Japanese owner of the freighter, the Shoei Kisen Kaisha group, quoted by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS, one of the electric cars on board could be the origin of the fire.
