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Hindustan Times
26-06-2025
- Automotive
- Hindustan Times
Morning Midas cargo ship: EVs behind fire sinking of 3000 vehicles off Alaska - Here's latest
The Morning Midas, a 600-foot Liberian-flagged cargo ship carrying 3,048 vehicles, including 70 fully electric vehicles (EVs) and 681 hybrids, sank in the Pacific Ocean, southwest of Adak, Alaska, after a fire broke out this week. Managed by Zodiac Maritime, the ship was en route from Yantai, China, to Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico, when the blaze led to the sinking. Smoke rises from a fire aboard the cargo vessel Morning Midas, carrying around 3,000 vehicles, including 800 electric vehicles(via REUTERS) 'There is no visible pollution,' Petty Officer Cameron Snell, an Alaska-based US Coast Guard spokesperson said, as per the Associated Press. "Right now we also have vessels on scene to respond to any pollution.' The fire originated on a deck carrying EVs, with smoke first spotted around midnight UTC. Zodiac Maritime confirmed the blaze began in the EV section, suggesting lithium-ion battery ignition as a likely trigger, though the exact cause remains under investigation. Read More: Las Vegas plane crash reports: What exactly caused fire at Harry Reid International Airport Lithium-ion batteries, used in EVs, can overheat or short-circuit if damaged, producing intense fires that are difficult to extinguish. The ship's CO2 fire suppression system failed after exhausting its supply, as lithium-ion fires require vast amounts of water—up to 10,000 gallons per vehicle. Sean DeCrane of the International Association of Fire Fighters noted the fire's behavior as 'consistent with known EV ignition patterns,' particularly with ineffective CO2 systems. No specific brand has been linked to the ignition, and Great Wall confirmed its 140 vehicles were not EVs and were on a different deck. Sinking of the Morning Midas The fire burned for weeks, spreading across multiple decks, as seen in US Coast Guard photos. This week, the combination of fire damage and severe weather caused the ship to sink in 5,000-meter-deep waters, according to reports. The vessel carried 350 metric tons of gas fuel and 1,530 metric tons of very low-sulfur fuel oil. The Morning Midas carried 3,048 vehicles, with 70 EVs and 681 hybrids, likely including models from Chinese manufacturers like Chery and SAIC. There were about 22 crew members on board. No reports of injuries have emerged so far.
Boston Globe
04-06-2025
- Automotive
- Boston Globe
Fire on ship carrying EVs forces evacuation after blaze reignites
Advertisement It's another case of EVs morphing into infernos, a chronic safety and public relations headache for the fast-growing industry. Although the initial cause is not yet known, fire safety experts said the presence of so many vehicle batteries on board would almost certainly worsen the situation beyond what the cargo ship's fire suppression systems could reasonably handle. The incident 'does sound consistent with a failure in electric vehicles, especially the deployment of the CO2 system and the reignition,' said Sean DeCrane, a director with the International Association of Fire Fighters. EV fires are notoriously hard to put out, resisting the effects of traditional foam-based fire extinguishers and small amounts of water. This is because battery fires spread through the excessive accumulation of heat from one battery cell to another, and from one battery to the next, said Rich Meier of Florida-based Meier Fire Investigation. Advertisement Permanently extinguishing this sort of fire, according to experts, requires lowering the heat; a carbon dioxide-based system like the one used on the Morning Midas would have starved the fire of oxygen and prevented it from spreading to other materials, but it wouldn't have stopped the batteries from overheating. There is also the potential for battery fires to spread from one EV to another in a chain reaction, Meier said. 'The prevailing wisdom is that it takes 10,000 gallons of water to put out a single lithium-ion EV fire. … When you multiply that by the number of vehicles on a ship, you may sink the ship before you put the fire out,' Meier said. Dousing the ship with seawater also presents problems, experts have said, because salt water is known to have corrosive effects, raising the risk of a short-circuits elsewhere on the ship. The company said all 22 crew members are safe and accounted for, with no reports of injuries. A tugboat has been deployed to salvage the ship. 'Our priorities are to ensure the continued safety of the crew and protect the marine environment,' Zodiac Maritime said in its statement. The Morning Midas fire is at least the third ship fire in recent years involving a vehicle carrier. In 2022, a cargo ship had to be abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean, with all crew members safely evacuating as luxury cars burned onboard. In a 2023 fire, one person was killed and six injured on a ship carrying nearly 3,000 vehicles. Advertisement
