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 fireplace broke out onboard, its operator Zodiac Maritime stated on Wednesday.
The 22 crew members have been safely evacuated from the ship after they did not put out the fireplace, Zodiac stated because it focuses on salvaging the vessel.
They have been evacuated by way of lifeboat and have been being transferred to a close-by service provider vessel in tandem with the U.S. Coast Guard.
The vessel, Morning Midas, was situated 300 miles (482.8 km) southwest of Adak in Alaska, the Coast Guard stated on its X account.
The Liberia-flagged ship left China’s Yantai port on Could 26 and was on the way in which to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, in keeping with LSEG information.
Smoke was initially seen rising from a deck loaded with EVs, the corporate stated. It isn’t clear what model of automobiles the ship was carrying.
EV-related fires on ships are difficult to extinguish because of the warmth generated and danger of reignition, which may persist for days.
ALFREDO ESTRELLA by way of Getty Photos
The Coast Guard stated aircrew and a cutter ship have been despatched to help with the scenario and three vessels have been already on the scene.
In 2022, a ship carrying 4,000 luxurious automobiles, 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, automobile carriers and roll-on/roll-off ships are an enormous 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 best degree in a decade in 2024, in keeping with insurer Allianz Industrial.
“The fact is the chance stays important because of the measurement of those ships and the complexities concerned in firefighting and salvage,” Allianz stated in its 2025 security and transport evaluation report.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia, Rajveer Singh Pardesi and Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Kirsten Donovan and Arun Koyyur)
