22 crew members rescued from lifeboat in North Pacific after ship carrying 3,000 cars catches fire

Key Points

• The car carrier Morning Midas, en route to Mexico with 3,000 vehicles including 800 electric vehicles, caught fire off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
• All 22 crew members were safely evacuated into lifeboats and later transferred to a nearby merchant vessel, with no reported injuries.
• Onboard firefighting efforts using the ship’s suppression system failed to control the blaze, prompting deployment of a tug for salvage and firefighting support.
• The U.S. Coast Guard is sending air crews and a ship to assist, while authorities coordinate environmental protection measures.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The crew of a cargo ship carrying 3,000 vehicles to Mexico, including 800 electric vehicles, abandoned ship after they could not control a fire aboard the vessel in waters off Alaska's Aleutian island chain.

A large plume of smoke was initially seen at the ship's stern coming from the deck loaded with electric vehicles Tuesday, according to U.S. Coast Guard photos and a Wednesday statement from the ship’s management company, London-based Zodiac Maritime.

There were no reported injuries among the 22 crew members of the Morning Midas.

Crew members abandoned ship, were evacuated onto a lifeboat and rescued by the crew of a nearby merchant vessel called the Cosco Hellas in the North Pacific, roughly 300 miles (490 kilometers) southwest of Adak Island. Adak is about 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) west of Anchorage, the state's largest city.

The crew initiated emergency firefighting procedures with the ship's onboard fire suppression system. But they were unable bring the flames under control.

“The relevant authorities have been notified, and we are working closely with emergency responders with a tug being deployed to support salvage and firefighting operations,” Zodiac Maritime said in a statement. “Our priorities are to ensure the continued safety of the crew and protect the marine environment.”

The U.S. Coast Guard said it sent aircrews to Adak and a ship to the area. The status of the fire onboard the ship was unknown as of Wednesday afternoon, but smoke was still emanating from it, according to the Coast Guard.

Rear Admiral Megan Dean, commander of the Coast Guard’s Seventeenth District, said in a statement that as the search and rescue part of the response concluded, the Coast Guard was working with Zodiac Maritime to determine how to recover the ship and what will be done with it.

“We are grateful for the selfless actions of the three nearby vessels who assisted in the response and the crew of motor vessel Cosco Hellas, who helped save 22 lives,” Dean said.

The 600-foot (183-meter) Morning Midas, a car and truck carrier, was built in 2006 and sails under a Liberian flag.

The cars left Yantai, China, on May 26, according to the industry site marinetraffic.com. They were being shipped to Lazaro Cardenas, a major Pacific port in Mexico.

Earlier this month, a Dutch safety board called for improving emergency response on North Sea shipping routes after a deadly 2023 fire on a freighter that was carrying 3,000 automobiles, including nearly 500 electric vehicles, from Germany to Singapore.

That fire killed one person, injured others and burned out of control for a week, and the ship was eventually towed to a port in the northern Netherlands for salvage.

The accident increased the focus on safety issues on the open sea and on containers that fall off the massive freighters, which have increased in size dramatically in recent decades. More than 80% of international trade by volume now arrives by sea, and the largest container vessels are longer than three football fields.

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Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington.