One dead, several injured in ship fire off Netherlands

AMSTERDAM - One sailor died and several others were injured after a fire broke out on a car carrier ship off the Netherlands on Wednesday, the Dutch coastguard said.

Rescue personnel received a call shortly after midnight saying a fire had started on the Fremantle Highway, a Panamanian-registered ship with 3,000 vehicles on board, about 27 kilometres off the northern Dutch island of Ameland.

"All 23 crew members have now been evacuated off the ship" with the use of helicopters and a boat, the Dutch coastguard said on its website.

"The crew tried to put out the fire themselves but failed. Unfortunately, one person died and several others were injured," it added.

At least seven crew members jumped overboard and were rescued from the water, while the rest were airlifted by helicopter.

The Fremantle Highway is an 18,500-tonne car carrier ship and was sailing between Bremerhaven in Germany and Port Said in Egypt when the blaze broke out, according to the marinetraffic.com website.

"The blaze is still raging on board," the coastguard said, adding that the ship was listing.

Salvage vessels were on the scene trying to put out the blaze and prevent the ship from sinking, the NOS national broadcaster said.

Specialised firefighters were called from Rotterdam, who would be taken to the ship by helicopter. But the fire developed so quickly that it was no longer safe to bring those firefighters on board.

A tug vessel has however managed to attach a cable to the stricken ship to prevent it from drifting and blocking an important sailing route into Germany, the NOS said.

"We are taking into account all scenarios," a coastguard official told the NOS.

The possible cause of the fire was an electric vehicle, one of some 25 on board, the official said. 

The injured sailors were taken to the northern towns of Lauwersoog and Eelde and left in the care of paramedics there.