Off the shore of the Dutch island of Ameland, a cargo ship carrying nearly 3,000 automobiles caught fire, killing one crew member and injuring 22 others.
In order to escape the fire, some of the crew made a 30 m (100 ft) leap into the water.
Rescue workers worry that the fire could burn for days as a massive recovery operation is underway in the North Sea.
Initial attempts by crew members to put out the fires by themselves failed due to being overpowered, and they were ultimately forced to leave.
Willard Molenaar, the skipper of the Ameland lifeboat, reported that seven of them dove into the water.
“One by one, they jumped and we had to fish them out of the water,” he told public broadcaster NOS. “They were really desperate so they had to jump – you don’t just do that for the sake of it.”
In the North Sea, distressing images shared by the coastguard depicted the Panamanian-flagged Fremantle Highway shrouded in smoke, its deck ablaze.
According to the Dutch news agency ANP, the coastguard stated that the fire was expected to persist for several days. In an effort to cool down the vessel, water was being sprayed on the ship’s sides.
However, rescue boats exercised caution in their water usage, as excessive pouring could pose a risk of sinking the ship.
The cargo ship embarked from the port of Bremerhaven in northern Germany, en route to Port Said in Egypt, departing on Tuesday around 15:00 local time.
Unfortunately, it encountered difficulties overnight, approximately 27km (17 miles) north of Ameland in the Wadden Sea, an area within the North Sea designated as a World Heritage site.
The exact cause of the fire remained unknown, although earlier suggestions by the coastguard had indicated the possibility of an electric car being involved, as around 25 of the vehicles onboard were electric.
About 25 of the vehicles on the ship were electric.
To move the cargo ship away from major shipping routes to and from Germany, a tugboat was deployed for the task.
The freighter, operated by K-Line but owned by a subsidiary of the Japanese shipbuilding firm Imabari Shipbuilding, is presently stationary. However, there are concerns that it might be listing, adding to the challenges faced by emergency crews at the scene.
The primary focus for the responders is to extinguish the fire and prevent the cargo ship from sinking. Salvage boats are strategically positioned around the vessel, ready for any potential scenarios, while an oil-recovery vessel has been dispatched to the area in case of a leak. As a precautionary measure, air traffic officials have restricted planes from flying near the ship.
Environmental group North Sea Foundation has expressed concern over the increased vulnerability of the Wadden Sea due to the high volume of larger ships utilizing the busy shipping route.
In the past, the area has experienced incidents involving cargo ships. Four years ago, another Panamanian-registered cargo ship lost 270 shipping containers, some of which contained chemicals, during a storm, with some containers washing up on Dutch beaches.
Similarly, in a separate incident last year, a cargo ship carrying 4,000 luxury cars caught fire and sank off the Azores. The blaze was attributed to lithium-ion batteries in the cars, and although water initially proved ineffective, firefighters managed to bring the situation under control before the ship eventually sank during towing.