The crew evacuated the vessel after they were unable to extinguish a fire that broke out on the deck containing electric vehicles.
The cargo ship Morning Midas has sunk in the Pacific Ocean with about 3,000 vehicles on board, including 800 electric vehicles, mostly made in China. The disaster was likely caused by a fire that broke out on the deck of the electric vehicles, raising questions about the safety of transporting highly flammable lithium-ion batteries.
The New York Post writes about this.
The ship is known to have been drifting since June 3 after it caught fire, forcing the crew to evacuate.
The fiery path to the bottom
According to AP News, the Morning Midas sank on Monday, June 23, in international waters near the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, about 770 kilometers from shore, in about five kilometers of water.
The fire on the ship was first spotted three weeks earlier at the stern, where a huge plume of smoke was billowing from the deck containing the electric cars. The situation was made worse by adverse weather conditions and water intrusion onto the ship. The 22 crew members were successfully evacuated, being transferred by lifeboat to a nearby merchant vessel as the flames could not be extinguished. Fortunately, there were no casualties.
The ship's owner, Zodiac Maritime, said it was working with the U.S. Coast Guard and marine emergency response company Resolve Marine. Two rescue tugs with special equipment remain at the wreck site to monitor for any signs of pollution or debris. Another pollution response vessel has also been sent to the site.
The Dangers of Lithium-Ion Batteries
The Morning Midas incident has once again drawn attention to the potential dangers associated with transporting lithium-ion batteries, which are integral to electric vehicles. Incidents like these highlight the need to review safety standards for shipping electric vehicles.
A similar incident occurred in 2022, when the cargo ship Felicity Ace sank in the Atlantic Ocean. The fire then lasted for almost a week, and experts involved in the rescue operation assumed that the fire’s spread and prolonged burning were caused by the large number of lithium batteries on board. Fortunately, the ship’s crew managed to send out a distress signal and abandon ship.
