Ship Carrying Thousands of Vehicles Is Burning, Adrift

A ship carrying thousands of vehicles from China to Mexico was abandoned in the Pacific Ocean around 300 miles southwest of Alaska's Adak Island after the crew was unable to put out a fire. The fire on the Liberian-flagged Morning Midas started on a deck carrying electric vehicles, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 600-foot ship is carrying around 3,000 vehicles, including 800 EVs. After efforts to put out the fire failed, the 22 crew members got into a lifeboat and were rescued by a nearby merchant vessel.

The US Coast Guard says three ships are at the scene and aircrews have been sent to assist, reports Reuters. Coast Guard spokesman Steve Roth says the crew tried to put out the fire after smoke was seen coming from the deck carrying EVs, but it reignited after the CO2 in the ship's firefighting system was exhausted. "The relevant authorities have been notified, and we are working closely with emergency responders with a tug being deployed to support salvage and firefighting operations," Zodiac Maritime, the ship's management company, said in a statement, per the AP. "Our priorities are to ensure the continued safety of the crew and protect the marine environment."

Electric vehicle fires are hard enough to put out on land, and while the cause of the fire is unclear, experts say the presence of so many batteries could cause a fire to easily grow beyond anything the ship's systems could handle, the Washington Post reports. "The prevailing wisdom is that it takes 10,000 gallons of water to put out a single lithium-ion EV fire," says Rich Meier of Meier Fire Investigation. "When you multiply that by the number of vehicles on a ship, you may sink the ship before you put the fire out."