The crew of a 600 ft cargo ship carrying 3,048 vehicles, including 70 electric and 681 hybrid vehicles, had to abandon ship after they were unable put out a fire that began on a cargo deck loaded with EV’s.
The Morning Midas, the Liberia-flagged ship bound for Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico, left China’s Yantai port on May the 26th but, in the waters off Alaska’s Aleutian island chain, on the 3rd of June, the ship caught fire.
Powerless to deal with the blaze, the 22 crew members sent out an SOS call, were evacuated via lifeboat and transferred to the nearby merchant vessel Cosco Hellas, one of three vessels who responded to the distress call. A coast guard vessel and air crew attended the scene, approximately 300 miles southwest of Adak island. None of the crew members were injured, according to the operator, UK-based Zodiac Maritime.
Zodiac said in a statement that authorities had been notified and they were working closely with emergency responders, with a tug being deployed to support salvage and firefighting operations. Zodiac has appointed salvors Resolve Marine to respond to the fire from the vessel.
The US coast guard who attended the scene, have said the ship would be allowed to burn due to the risk of explosion from the EV batteries. They also thanked the ‘Samaritan’ vessels who responded to the distress call. “As the search and rescue portion of our response concludes, our crews are working closely with the vessel’s manager, Zodiac Maritime, to determine the disposition of the vessel,” said Rear Admiral Megan Dean, commander of the Coast Guard’s Seventeenth District. “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.”
Image: The Morning Midas Credit: USCG
