June 4 (Reuters) – The crew of a cargo ship carrying round 3,000 automobiles, together with 800 electrical automobiles, deserted it off the coast of Alaska after a hearth broke out onboard, its operator Zodiac Maritime mentioned on Wednesday.
The 22 crew members had been safely evacuated from the ship after they didn’t put out the hearth, Zodiac mentioned because it focuses on salvaging the vessel.
They had been evacuated through lifeboat and had been being transferred to a close-by service provider vessel in tandem with the U.S. Coast Guard.
The vessel, Morning Midas, was positioned 300 miles (482.8 km) southwest of Adak in Alaska, the Coast Guard mentioned on its X account.
The Liberia-flagged ship left China’s Yantai port on Could 26 and was on the best way to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, in response to LSEG information.
Smoke was initially seen rising from a deck loaded with EVs, the corporate mentioned. It’s not clear what model of automobiles the ship was carrying.
EV-related fires on ships are difficult to extinguish as a result of warmth generated and danger of reignition, which may persist for days.
ALFREDO ESTRELLA through Getty Pictures
The Coast Guard mentioned aircrew and a cutter ship have been despatched to help with the scenario and three vessels had been already on the scene.
In 2022, a ship carrying 4,000 luxurious vehicles, together with Porsches and Bentleys, sank off the Portuguese Azores archipelago almost two weeks after it caught fireplace.
Fires onboard vessels, significantly on container ships, automotive carriers and roll-on/roll-off ships are a giant concern for insurers.
Steamship Mutual, one of many insurers of Morning Midas, didn’t reply to a Reuters request for remark.
Such incidents throughout all vessel segments hit the very best stage in a decade in 2024, in response to insurer Allianz Business.
“The reality is the risk remains significant due to the size of these ships and the complexities involved in firefighting and salvage,” Allianz mentioned in its 2025 security and transport evaluation report.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia, Rajveer Singh Pardesi and Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Modifying by Kirsten Donovan and Arun Koyyur)
