Posted on June 4, 2025
NEW YORK — A ship carrying about 3,000 cars to Mexico has been abandoned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after catching fire on Tuesday.
Smoke was first seen coming from a deck carrying some of the 800 electric vehicles on board, the ship’s manager Zodiac Maritime said in a statement.
The crew initiated firefighting procedures but the blaze could not be brought under control, it added. The US Coast Guard evacuated all 22 crew members from the Morning Midas, transferring them to a nearby merchant ship.
Responders were being deployed to support salvage and firefighting operations, Zodiac said.
Car-carrying ships can haul thousands of vehicles at a time around the globe. In recent years there have been a handful of significant blazes involving vessels hauling electric vehicles, sparking concerns that the batteries inside those cars can catch light and lead to significant disasters.
In 2022, a ship carrying about 4,000 vehicles caught fire in the Atlantic and ended up sinking despite efforts to tow it to safety.
