EV-Fueled Inferno Forces Crew To Abandon Ship Carrying 3,000 Cars Across Pacific

If fire departments on land have problems unleashing the torrent of water needed to extinguish a single burning EV, the crew of a ship doesn’t stand a chance against hundreds of flaming lithium-ion batteries. A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles across the Pacific Ocean caught fire on Tuesday. The Morning Midas, a 600-foot cargo ship, was in the middle of a voyage from Yantai, China to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico when the fire broke out. 

Zodiac Maritime, the ship’s London-based operator, noted that smoke was first spotted on a deck carrying 800 electric vehicles. Once the blaze got out of control, the vessel’s 22 crew members abandoned ship via lifeboat. With the ship roughly 300 southwest of Alaska, the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched aircrews and a cutter to respond to the emergency, according to Bloomberg. The evacuating crew on the lifeboat was transferred by the USCG to one of the three other merchants at the scene, helping to fight the fire. Zodiac Maritime wouldn’t comment on which automaker’s vehicles were burning to a crisp. This is an ongoing story, and we will update when we know more about the fate of the Morning Midas. 

The inferno on Morning Midas will remind many of the Felicity Ace fire in 2022. The 650-foot cargo vessel burst into flames while carrying 4,000 cars built by Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche and Volkswagen. Despite the hope of towing the ship to port once the fire was put out, Felicia Ace sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The lithium-ion batteries fitted to the EV onboard kept the fire burning much longer than expected. One of the cars that ended up on the seafloor was a Porsche Boxster Spyder ordered by Matt Farah, host of The Smoking Tire. He was just glad that the ship’s crew escaped unharmed.

Fighting EV fires in the middle of an ocean is a tall task for any crew. It often takes tens of thousands of gallons of water to douse a burning lithium-ion battery. While it might seem straightforward to put a pump over the side and use saltwater to put out the flames, it’s not a viable option. The salt in ocean water is electrically conductive and would fuel an ongoing blaze. Current guidelines for crews emphasize early detection and limiting water use by letting EVs burn while containing any potential spreading. We’re going to need better ways to fight battery fires if electric vehicles are going to be far more numerous.