Crew Abandons Cargo Ship After Massive Electric Vehicle Inferno


With the fire rapidly escalating beyond control, the crew made a distress call and swiftly abandoned ship into lifeboats. Fortunately, nearby merchant vessels, including the Cosco Hellas, responded to the Urgent Marine Information Broadcast issued by the U.S. Coast Guard, successfully rescuing all on board with no reported injuries.

The Morning Midas now drifts abandoned in the vast Pacific, a smoldering testament to the unique challenges presented by EV transport. The U.S. Coast Guard has dispatched aircrews and a cutter to the area, and Zodiac Maritime is deploying a tug to support salvage and firefighting operations. The ultimate fate of the vessel and its valuable cargo remains uncertain, but the incident inevitably draws parallels to the 2022 Felicity Ace disaster, where a car carrier laden with luxury EVs sank in the Atlantic after a similar fire, resulting in immense financial losses.
While EV fires on ships are not necessarily more frequent than those involving internal combustion engine vehicles, their severity and the difficulty in extinguishing them pose a significantly higher risk. Lithium-ion battery fires can reignite hours or even days after initial suppression, and standard firefighting techniques often prove ineffective, or worse, can exacerbate the situation.
Industry experts and regulatory bodies, such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), have been grappling with the evolving safety landscape. New guidelines and regulations for the safe transport of EVs are in development, with a target completion by 2027. These measures aim to address issues such as early fire detection, specialized extinguishing systems (rather than traditional water or CO2), improved crew training, and potentially stricter protocols for battery charge levels during transport.