The Fremantle Highway may have raised the same questions as the Felicity Ace, but the roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) cargo ship faced a different fate – so far. After departing the Bremerhaven port in Germany toward Singapore with 3,783 cars, it caught fire at the late hours of July 25. When the blaze was controlled, it could be towed to the Eemshaven port in Groningen, where it was moored on August 3. The salvage companies involved with the ship's assessment estimated that 900 vehicles survived, but nobody knows who took the leaked pictures that illustrate this article. They show how destructive the fire was.
Pictures released by the Dutch Ministry of Defense and the Dutch Coastal Guard showed the damage to the sides of the Fremantle Highway, but at least one presents the collapsed upper deck of the RoRo cargo ship. With 12 decks, the blaze probably broke out on deck eight. It was so intense that it affected decks six to eleven. Richard Janssen, who works for SMIT Salvage, said deck five was empty. Several salvage companies are working on the ship to check what can be recovered.
All vehicles transported on decks one to four are apparently in good shape. Nobody knows how many of these vehicles are electric. Still, the same speculation that stated a battery electric vehicle (BEV) started the blaze is now being used to exempt them from responsibility. Too bad that the leaked images show the remains of what looks pretty much like a Porsche Taycan. Another picture reveals a Mini Clubman and some classic vehicles. Some of our readers will certainly be able to identify them. On top of that, it is doubtful that all BEVs were stored in the same deck. This even explains why some of the cars did not burn: an empty deck separated them.
Peter Berdowski told NL Times that the vehicles that escaped are perfectly movable. He is the CEO of Boskalis, the salvage company in charge of removing the cargo that may be recovered. Berdowski said that some of "these cars have charged batteries with high voltage, which can be extremely dangerous."
Photo: via RTL Niews
That was why they were waiting for engineers from the Volkswagen Group, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz to determine what they could do with these cars. With the efforts to extinguish the fire with seawater, even the vehicles that seem to be in perfect shape may be write-offs. The salvage companies also have to determine if it is possible to safely open the ramps to unload the vehicles.
So far, the companies working on the ship have estimated losses of around €300 million ($327.1 million at the current exchange rate). In some decks of the Fremantle Highway, the blaze was so intense that the car bodies fused with the ship's structure. It is not unlikely that a few BEVs or plug-in hybrid vehicles made these fires worse. Some decks were so badly affected that they may still collapse – which also explains why the salvage companies are carefully approaching any action.
As for the pictures of the ship's interior that leaked, Boskalis executives said they believe they were taken by insurance personnel or even someone from the company that owns the vessel, Shoei Kisen Kaisha. Regardless of the source, the images help us understand what happened and why the crew had to jump from the Fremantle Highway to save their lives. Unfortunately, one of the crew members died from the injuries sustained from hitting the water at speeds of around 130 kph (81 mph). Nobody disclosed his name.
Photo: via RTL Niews
The pictures were shared both by RTL Nieuws and by Andreas Mrosek, a right-wing German politician from Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, or AfD). In the post where he published them, Mrosek said that the Fremantle Highway was burned by electric cars, which nobody has confirmed so far. As I wrote before, that is hardly relevant when BEVs are also present: the real issue is if they also catch fire.
For the AfD politician, they are "dangerous goods and must be treated as such. Imagine an e-car fire on a sea ferry! Evacuate 200 passengers! Bad situation for the captain and crew!" That's a valid concern, irrespective of your political sympathies.
Leaving at least one deck empty to prevent fires from spreading so rapidly may turn into a valid strategy to deal with BEV transportation. Keeping them apart from each other may also help: although the fire is intense, it will end after all the batteries burn. The problem is that these vehicles are heavy, which should keep them on lower decks to help balance the vessel, as Sal Mercogliano mentioned in his previous video about the case. As the "What is Going on With Shipping" YouTube channel presenter reminds us, BEVs are still being treated as regular cars when they are shipped, which is a big mistake.
Whatever ship managers decide to do, rescuing the Fremantle Highway may offer valuable lessons on how to transport electric cars in the safest way possible. Honestly, it should have been conceived before a man had to jump from a ship in flames trying to save his life, but it may prevent others from dying the same way.
Autotransporter Fremantle Highway, ausgebrannt durch E-Autos. E-Autos sind Gefahrgut und müssen als solches behandelt werden. Man stelle sich einen E-Auto-Brand auf einer Seefähre vor! 200 Passagiere evakuieren! Schlimme Situation für Kapitän und Besatzung! pic.twitter.com/JsiAe965yG
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