The mother of all car fires is burning in the Pacific Ocean after fire broke out on a cargo ship carrying more than 3,000 vehicles, including some electric vehicles.
Fire broke out Tuesday on the Morning Midas, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
The ship was about 300 miles south of Adak, Alaska, when the fire started.
The cargo ship was carrying 350 metric tons of gas fuel and 1,530 metric tons of very low sulfur fuel oil, the Coast Guard reported.
The ship carried 3,048 vehicles, with 70 fully electric vehicles and 681 hybrid electric vehicles.
The 22 crew members on board were evacuated by other vessels in the vicinity.
⚡️Cargo ship carrying 3,000 vehicles catches fire in the Pacific Ocean
The Morning Midas, en route from China to Mexico, caught fire in the Pacific overnight on June 3. On board were around 3,000 vehicles, including electric cars with lithium-ion batteries — making firefighting… pic.twitter.com/RQ4FTDP7hp
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 5, 2025
“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.
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A Coast Guard representative said the fire was being allowed to burn out while ships watched at a distance due to fears that lithium-ion batteries in the electric vehicles could explode, according to The New York Times.
The incident “does sound consistent with a failure in electric vehicles, especially the deployment of the CO2 system and the reignition,” said Sean DeCrane, a director with the International Association of Fire Fighters, according to The Washington Post.
“The prevailing wisdom is that it takes 10,000 gallons of water to put out a single lithium-ion EV fire. … When you multiply that by the number of vehicles on a ship, you may sink the ship before you put the fire out,” Rich Meier of Florida-based Meier Fire Investigation said.
The crew tried to put out the fire, but could not, according to Bloomberg
A report last month by insurance firm Allianz noted that lithium-ion batteries, which are the power source for electric vehicles, “pose a great risk in case of fire, and they are able to store huge amounts of energy.”
“Recent fires at battery facilities highlight potential industry dangers while maritime concerns are rising, with incidents on vessels at sea and at U.S. and Canadian ports,” the report said.
The U.S. Coast Guard is responding to a fire on board the 600-foot car carrier, Morning Midas, carrying hundreds of electric vehicles approximately 300 miles off the coast of Alaska.
The vessel departed from Yantai, China on May 26 with destination Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico where… pic.twitter.com/7Nf5OvNjtD
— NYCFireWire (@NYCFireWire) June 5, 2025
Bloomberg noted, “Fires involving EVs are often harder to extinguish and more dangerous to fight. The conditions of a tightly packed car-carrying cargo ship lead to limited ventilation, which can rapidly intensify heat. The confined, steel-lined environment makes fire suppression and rescues significantly more dangerous.”
“Additionally, when an electric vehicle burns, it does so for longer, and the fire gets hotter.”
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