Massive Fire on Panamanian Ship: 3,000 German Cars Incinerated while enroute to Egypt

In a developing incident, nearly 3,000 cars are feared to have been destroyed after a carrier ship went up in flames off the Dutch coast. The Panamanian cargo ship was reportedly carrying 2,857 cars, it was enroute Egypt from Germany and presumably holds luxury cars, including 25 electric vehicles. The fire on the 199-metre-long, ‘Fremantle Highway’ carrier, started on July 25 evening. Rescue and extinguishing missions have bene going on, however, the fire teams are facing difficulty in extinguishing the fire and bringing it under control. Here are some of the visual that have gone viral of the ship.
It is being reported that one of the electric cars onboard the cargo ship, could be the reason behind the fire. However, there has been no confirmation by the authorities confirming that this is actually an EV fire incident. As per the coastguard, the ‘ship fire’ could go on for days before coming under control. To make matters worse, the ship is close to Ameland and could also sink near one of the four ecologically sensitive Frisian islands. The UNESCO world heritage site is in the Waddenzee area, north of the Dutch mainland. The site is reportedly home to more than 10,000 aquatic and terrestrial species, including 140 species of fish.

The incident is also a reminder of the risks involved in storing and transporting electric vehicles. EV fires have been a point of debate across the world, in India alone, several incidents have been reported of EV fires taking place in two-wheelers and four-wheelers. However, the authorities are not certain if the ‘Panamanian ship’ went up in a blaze due to an EV, so we have to wait for the authorities to confirm the reason behind the fire.