20 Indians Rescued from Burning Vessel Return Back Home

Padmesh Prabhune

Twenty Indian Crew rescued from the burning vessel, mv Fremantle Highway, off the Dutch coast, are back home.

According to reports, the Panama-registered vessel carrying about 3800 cars, including BMW & Mercedes brands, on passage from Germany to Egypt, caught fire on 25th July and was burning till almost a week ago. 20 crew members were injured, and 1 died in the fire.

The Dutch Coast Guard in its report mentioned that the cause of the fire as yet 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, 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 by the time they reached the incident scene.

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

Acknowledging the support of Dutch authorities, the Indian Embassy in the Hague    thanked the Dutch authorities for their assistance and also appreciated the efforts of all the sailors for their fortitude & courage through this difficult time.

The Indian crew of the cargo ship are learnt to have returned home safe, whereas at the same time the mortal remains of one crew member killed in the fire are to be repatriated soon.

-Marex Media