Burning Car Carrier Abandoned Off Alaska

The crew of a ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles, including 800 electric vehicles, abandoned it off the coast of Alaska after a fire broke out onboard, its operator Zodiac Maritime said on Wednesday.

The 22 crew members were safely evacuated from the ship after they failed to put out the fire, Zodiac said as it focuses on salvaging the vessel.

They were evacuated via lifeboat and were being transferred to a nearby merchant vessel Cosco Hellas in tandem with the U.S. Coast Guard.

The vessel, Morning Midas, was located 300 miles (482.8 km) southwest of Adak in Alaska, the Coast Guard said on its X account.

The Liberia-flagged ship left China’s Yantai port on May 26 and was on the way to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, according to LSEG data.

Smoke was initially seen rising from a deck loaded with EVs, the company said. It is not clear what brand of vehicles the ship was carrying.

EV-related fires on ships are challenging to extinguish due to the heat generated and risk of reignition, which could persist for days.

The Coast Guard said aircrew and a cutter ship have been sent to assist with the situation and three vessels were already on the scene.

The Morning Midas is estimated to have approximately 350 metric tons of gas fuel and 1,530 metric tons of very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) onboard.

In 2022, a ship carrying 4,000 luxury cars, including Porsches and Bentleys, sank off the Portuguese Azores archipelago nearly two weeks after it caught fire.

Fires onboard vessels, particularly on container ships, car carriers and roll-on/roll-off ships are a big concern for insurers.

Steamship Mutual, one of the insurers of Morning Midas, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Such incidents across all vessel segments hit the highest level in a decade in 2024, according to insurer Allianz Commercial. Although shipping losses have declined by 75% over the past decade (27 vessels in 2024 compared with over 100 in 2015), fire incidents have not followed. 

The number of fire incidents on vessels overall was up 20% year-on-year to a decade high of 250. Around 30% of these fire incidents occurred on either container, cargo, or roll-on roll-off vessels.

More than 100 total losses of vessels have been caused by fires in the past decade (109), making fire the third most frequent cause of loss in shipping behind wrecked/stranded (110) and foundered (346), according to Allianz. The number of reported fire incidents on roll-on roll-off vessels increased from 11 to 16 year-on-year during 2024.

Allianz analysis of 250,000 marine insurance industry claims over a five-year period shows fire is also the most expensive cause of loss, accounting for 18% of the value of all claims analyzed.

Recent car carrier incidents include: the July 2023 fire on the vehicle carrier Grande Costa D’Avorio in the Port of Newark which resulted in the death of two firefighters and damage to many of the 1,200 vehicles onboard. 

A few weeks later, fire broke out on the car carrier Fremantle Highway enroute to Egypt from Germany, resulting in the death of one crew member and damaging the vessel and some of the 3,700+ cars onboard the ship. 

In February 2022, the Felicity Ace caught fire and sank with some 4,000 vehicles onboard. 

In 2020, a fire caused the total loss of the Höegh Xiamen and its cargo of 2,420 vehicles in Florida while in 2019 the Grande America sank in the Bay of Biscay carrying 2,100 new and used vehicles.

“The reality is the risk remains significant due to the size of these ships and the complexities involved in firefighting and salvage,” Allianz said in its 2025 safety and shipping review report.

(Reuters and staff)