The
199-metre (653 ft) Fremantle Highway caught fire overnight
Tuesday and several of the 23 crew jumped overboard to escape
the flames and were rescued by the Dutch coastguard.
The coastguard said on its website Thursday the cause of the
fire was unknown, but an emergency responder is heard in a
recording released by Dutch broadcaster RTL saying "the fire
started in the battery of an electric car."
Roughly 25 out of 2,857 vehicles on the ship, which was en route
from Germany to Egypt, were electric.
An investigation has been launched by the Panama Maritime
Authority and the Netherlands was expected to assist the
inquiry, Dutch Safety Board spokesman Arjen Zegers told Reuters.
The Fremantle had drifted westward in international waters from
its initial location just off the island of Ameland in the
direction of the island of Terschelling, Dutch news agency ANP
reported.
The islands are on the northernmost tip of the Netherlands, and
comprise part of the Wadden Sea, a vast area of tidal flats and
marshland stretching along Germany and Denmark that is on
UNESCO's World Heritage list.
(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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