As far as we can tell, this is the second time this has happened, a ship loaded with electric cars that are powered by lithium batteries caught fire last week and had to be abandoned at sea.
On June 3, the car carrier Morning Midas caught fire 220 miles south of Adak, Alasks. The fire appears to have started near the stern and it is highly likely that the cause is the spontaneous combustion of an EV battery. As we have learned, lithium battery fires are very hard to put out and will spread from one battery to the next.
The ship was en route from China to Mexico when it caught fire. Despite onboard fire suppression equipment and the best efforts of the crew, the fire’s intensity was so great that all 22 seamen were forced to take to their lifeboats, They were rescued by the merchant vessel Costco Hellas without incident or injury.
On Sunday, the US Coast Guard took photos of the ship that show the fire that started in the stern holds had spread and burned the length of the Morning Midas destroying super structures and doubtless all of the cars onboard.
On Monday of this week, the tug Gretchen Dunlap arrived on scene with a salvage crew. Two other support vessels are scheduled to join the tug in the next two weeks.
There were 3,159 vehicles on the 600-foot car carrier and of those 65 were pure electric and 681 were hybrid gas-electric. The ship was loaded with 350 metric tons of gas fuel and 1530 metric tons of low sulfer bunker oil. As of this week, the USCG reported no fuel leakage
In 2022, the car carrier Felicity Ace loaded with 4,000 luxury cars, including Lamborghinis, Bentleys and Porsches, caught fire 90 miles from the Azores Islands and its crew was forced to abandon ship. Efforts to save the ship failed and the Felicity Ace sank.
