A cargo ship carrying cars from Germany to Singapore has caught fire off the coast of the Netherlands.
The Freemantle Highway, a 655-foot boat packed with nearly 3,000 vehicles, went up in flames shortly before midnight on Tuesday, reports the Associated Press. Two days later, the fire fighters and salvage crews are waiting for the blaze to go out before boarding the vessel.
The Japanese-owned boat was sailing from the German port of Bremerhaven when it caught fire in the North Sea Tuesday, some 17 miles of north of the Dutch island of Ameland. During the evacuation that followed, one of the ship’s 21-member crew died and several others were injured.
On Wednesday, the coast guard of the Netherlands announced the Freemantle Highway was carrying 2,857 vehicles, including 350 built by Mercedes-Benz. Additionally, 25 cars on board the cargo ship are said to be electric. Multiple reports have suggested that one of the battery-powered vehicles may have started the fire, but there has yet to be official confirmation one way or the other. The coast guard’s liveblog has repeatedly stated that the “cause of the fire is still unknown,” but a spokesperson for the same agency told Reuters on Wednesday it started “near an electric car.”
The coast guard’s latest update, which was posted Thursday evening local time, called the situation “stable,” but said there was still a lot of smoke. The post also noted that several units were on-site monitoring the situation.
This is the second time in as many years that a cargo ship carrying hundreds of vehicles has gone up in flames off the coast of a European nation. Last March, the Felicity Ace sank less than two weeks after catching fire 250 miles off coast of Portugal’s Azore Islands. The ship went down with $155 million worth of luxury vehicles, including dozens of Porsches, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis. Thankfully, the boat’s 22-person crew was able to evacuate without injury.