Fremantle Highway fire (2023)
A car carrier fire in the North Sea in July 2023 that put the question of electric vehicles on board at the center of marine underwriting.
A car carrier is a floating building of open decks, loaded with thousands of vehicles that each carry fuel or a battery: a fire spreads quickly and is hard to fight, for lack of bulkheads and access. A lithium battery adds a fire that reignites after being put out and releases toxic gases, even when it is not the cause of ignition. The loss hits hull, cargo and the environment at once and, if the ship is underway to a port, the contribution of the other shippers through general average. That is why car carrier underwriting began asking for the share of electric vehicles on board, their state of charge and the ship's firefighting means.
During the night of July 25 to 26, 2023, a fire broke out on the Fremantle Highway north of the Dutch island of Ameland, with nearly 3,800 vehicles on board, about 500 of them electric; one crew member died, and the ship burned for several days before being towed to Eemshaven. The cause was not established as an electric vehicle.
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