A vessel with 3,000 cars on board catches fire in the Pacific Ocean

A Morning Midas cargo ship carrying 3,048 cars, including 70 all-electric and 681 hybrids, caught fire in the Pacific Ocean. The incident occurred near Adak Island, Alaska.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the distress call came in around 3:15 p.m. local time.

All 22 crew members were successfully evacuated by lifeboat and transferred to the Cosco Hellas vessel nearby.

Three other vessels arrived on scene to assist, and the Coast Guard dispatched a cutter and aircraft to coordinate rescue efforts.

The vessel, built in 2006 at the Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry shipyard in China, flies the flag of Liberia and is operated by British company Zodiac Maritime.

Morning Midas left the port of Yantai on May 26, bound for Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, with stops in Shanghai and Nansha.

The fire started on the deck with the electric vehicles, causing difficulty in extinguishing due to the lithium-ion batteries requiring significant amounts of water – up to 8,000 gallons for a single battery.

The incident underscores the risks of transporting electric vehicles, as lithium-ion batteries make firefighting more difficult.

According to insurance company Allianz, the number of such incidents reached a decade high in 2024.

Zodiac Maritime is focused on salvaging the vessel, but experts say such fires can burn for weeks, threatening the loss of cargo.