22 crew members rescued from lifeboat in North Pacific after ship
carrying 3,000 cars catches fire
[June 05, 2025]
By MARK THIESSEN and LISA BAUMANN
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.
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In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, smoke rises from
cargo vessel Morning Midas approximately 300 miles south of Adak,
Alaska, June 3, 2025, as the crew of a cargo ship carrying around
3,000 vehicles to Mexico, abandoned ship after they could not
control a fire. (U.S. Coast Guard/Courtesy Air Station Kodiak via
AP)
“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.
___
Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington.
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