Freighter carrying 3,000 automobiles, including EVs, burns in north Pacific

A fire on a cargo ship carrying electric vehicles that contain highly flammable lithium-ion batteries was burning off Alaska’s coast on Wednesday night, more than 24 hours after it broke out, the US Coast Guard and the ship’s manager said.

- FRANCESCA REGALADO SEOUL (NYT)

A deck carrying electric vehicles began smoking on Tuesday afternoon when the ship, the Morning Midas, was approximately 1,200 miles from Anchorage, according to its manager, Zodiac Maritime. The crew, unable to contain it, sent a distress alert 15 minutes later, the London-based shipping company said in a statement.

All 22 crew members left the 600-foot ship on a lifeboat and were rescued by a nearby commercial vessel, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the Coast Guard said that it was allowing the fire to burn out and watching from a safe distance because of the risk that lithium-ion batteries in the cars could explode.