Working on “Fremantle Highway”
“Part of the decks have merged with the cars”
8/11/2023 3:24 p.m
The “Fremantle Highway” off the Dutch North Sea coast has been on fire for several days. Most of the vehicles loaded on the freighter are destroyed and salvage is impossible. The removal of the undamaged cars is also difficult.
After the devastating fire on the car cargo ship off the Dutch coast, experts inspected the ship. The top four decks of the “Fremantle Highway” were so badly damaged that they could hardly be walked on, said the boss of the salvage company Boskalis, Peter Berdowski, according to media reports on Friday. It is therefore difficult to salvage the cargo.
According to the experts, around 2,700 of the approximately 3,800 cars on board have been destroyed and can probably not be recovered. “Some of the decks are totally merged with the cars,” Berdowski told reporters in Eemshaven, in the north-east of the country near the German border. Soon the oil will be pumped out of the ship. “This means that the risk of an environmental catastrophe is significantly smaller,” said the Boskalis boss.
The Japanese freighter was towed to Eemshaven a week ago after the fire had raged for days. The cause was probably the battery of an electric car. An oil spill threatened the North Sea, the islands and the natural areas of the Wadden Sea. One person died during the evacuation of the crew.
The inspection has now revealed that the lower 4 of the 12 decks are largely undamaged. At first glance, about 1,000 cars, including 500 electric ones, are in good condition, said Berdowski. But it is still unclear how they can be recovered. Experts from car manufacturers, including Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes, are now to investigate how the vehicles can be transported. The electric cars have a charged battery, said Berdowski. “It can be very dangerous.” You don’t want the cars to catch fire again as a result of the transport, “and all the misery starts all over again”.
The Fremantle Highway can remain in port until October 14th. From there the freighter is to be towed to another location where it will be scrapped or repaired. This is a decision of the Japanese shipowner.