20 Indian Crew Rescued From Burning Cargo Ship With 3000 Cars Safely Return Home

The Indian Crew of the cargo ship that burnt for nearly a week safely returned home. At the same time, the mortal remains of one crew member killed in the fire are being repatriated, per Indian authorities.

Video Credits: Reuters 

About 20 crew members were injured, and 1 died in the fire that started on 25th July onboard the Panama-registered vessel Fremantle Highway. It was going from Germany to Egypt and carried about 3800 cars, including BMWs, Mercedes etc.

The vessel had an Indian crew; most jumped from the ship when the fire broke out and sustained some injuries.

“20 Indian crew rescued from ship Fremantle Highway have safely returned to India over the past week. Thank Dutch authorities for their support & assistance and our sailors for their fortitude & courage through this difficult time,” the Indian Embassy in the Hague said on platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The destroyed and burnt-out ship was towed into the port in the northeast Netherlands for safety reasons to prevent further explosions, oil spills and ecological disasters that could cause contamination in the waters.

The Dutch Coast Guard mentioned that the cause of the fire remains a mystery; however, an audio recording of a rescue worker suggests that the fire began in the battery of an electric vehicle, and one seems to have exploded too.

Out of the 3783 cars on the vessel, 498 were electric vehicles.

The fire started on the ship’s upper deck, and salvage experts mentioned that 4 of its decks were undamaged in the hull while the 8th deck partially collapsed due to the intensity of the flames.

The 21-member crew tried to extinguish the fire, but it spread too fast, so firefighters were called from Rotterdam. The situation had become quite dangerous until they reached the incident scene.

References: economictimes, the print

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Source: Maritime Shipping News