Ship abandoned off Alaska after electric cars on board catch fire
- Reference: 1749108495
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/06/05/zodiac_maritime_electric_car_fire/
- Source link:
The good ship Morning Midas - a roll-on, roll-off ferry that was delivering 3,000 vehicles from Yantai, China, to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico - is currently around 304 miles south of Adak, Alaska, the US Coast Guard tells us. The sailors on the vessel, operated by UK-based Zodiac Maritime, noticed the fire at around midnight UTC on 3 June and were unable to stop the conflagration.
[1]
Right on the date line. Source: Zodiac Maritime
"The vessel is loaded with around 3,000 vehicles, 800 of which are electric vehicles," Zodiac Marine told The Register . "Smoke was initially seen emanating from a deck carrying electric vehicles."
"The crew immediately initiated emergency firefighting procedures using the vessel’s onboard fire suppression systems. However, despite their efforts, the situation could not be brought under control."
The crew made a distress call and boarded lifeboats. Nearby merchant vessels responded and rescued the mariners, the Coast Guard tells us. The ship is now likely to continue burning until specialized fire-fighting crews arrive and attempt to halt the blaze.
Water, water everywhere. And none of it useful
Everyone knows firefighters use water to douse fires, and that the liquid surrounds ships at. So why was this fire so hard to stop?
Because water and electricity don't mix, and salt water is an even better conductor than fresh water. When salt water covers a lithium battery, it can cause a short circuit that causes the battery cells to overheat in a sequence of rapid reactions, a process called thermal runaway that can cause the entire battery to burn.
[2]
Thermal runaway can happen days after immersion, thanks to minerals left over as the battery dries out, and even [3]if the battery is completely discharged.
[4]Heat can make Li-Ion batteries explode. Or restore their capacity, say Chinese boffins
[5]From pantyhose to power cells, nylon gives lithium batteries a leg up
[6]NIST trains AI to hear the 'oh crap' moment before batteries explode
[7]Starlink was offered for free to those hit by Hurricane Helene. It is not entirely free
Battery fires are also notoriously difficult to extinguish after they've started, and tend to burn hotter and faster than other blazes. Sometimes they reignite after firefighters put them out. One fire marshal [8]told CNBC in 2022 about a Tesla that burned so hot, it melted part of the road.
Firefighters in areas hit by hurricanes and flooding have some experience dealing with battery fires.
[9]
[10]
As Hurricane Milton approached Florida last fall, Florida State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis [11]warned electric cars and other battery-powered kit " are ticking time bombs.”
"In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, we have seen nearly 50 fires caused by lithium-ion batteries with 11 of those fires being caused by EVs."
[12]
Japanese shipping line Mitsui O.S.K is suing Volkswagen and insurers after [13]a 2022 fire aboard the car transporter Felicity Ace. The vessel, packed full of luxury cars, allegedly caught fire when a lithium battery in a Porsche shorted out and ignited.
While the Felicity Ace’s crew escaped to safety, authorities left the fire to burn itself out. Attempts to tow the vessel to port failed and it sank in the Atlantic, leading to the loss of nearly 4,000 vehicles.
The operator of the Morning Midas hopes to avoid a similar outcome. "We are working closely with emergency responders with a tug being deployed to support salvage and firefighting operations," Zodiac Maritime told us. "Our priorities are to ensure the continued safety of the crew and protect the marine environment." ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/06/04/fire.jpg
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aEFqqRBCeO-dBT7NU2jTcAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2024/11/conversation-flooding-fire-threat-ev-lithium-ion-batteries.php
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/17/heat_repairs_li_ion_batteries/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/11/nylon_additive_lithium_battery/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/18/battery_fail_sound_ai/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/08/free_starlink_hurricane_helene/
[8] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/29/electric-vehicle-fires-are-rare-but-hard-to-fight-heres-why.html
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aEFqqRBCeO-dBT7NU2jTcAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aEFqqRBCeO-dBT7NU2jTcAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://myfloridacfo.com/news/pressreleases/press-release-details/2024/10/07/fire-safety-alert-cfo---state-fire-marshal-jimmy-patronis-calls-on-ev-manufacturers-to-take-steps-to-protect-lives-for-milton
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aEFqqRBCeO-dBT7NU2jTcAAAAQM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://fortune.com/europe/2024/03/05/volkswagen-hit-2-lawsuits-porsche-ev-battery-triggered-massive-2022-fire-sank-cargo-ship-thousands-cars/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Tesla that burned so hot, it melted part of the road
As does a fire in a vehicle with a combustion engine! Saw a good blaze from a diesel van blocking three lanes a few weeks back...
Didn't see the "it took 40,000 gallons of water to put the fire out" this time though - which should really be "it took 40,000 gallons of water to keep the area cool until the fire burnt itself out".
Re: Tesla that burned so hot, it melted part of the road
The roads around here (Australia) get sticky in summer...
Roads are made by heating bitumen and mixing it with gravel so no, it doesn't take much heat to melt a road. Unless it's Portland cement concrete. That would be impressive.
Re: Tesla that burned so hot, it melted part of the road
I melted part of the road behind my car by doing a static regen of the DPF. The exhaust stream, for the 5-10 mins the regen takes, was hot enough for long enough to melt a teardrop shape of the top layer.
Re: Tesla that burned so hot, it melted part of the road
I've seen garages do their DPF regens well away from their units! Apparently a soot clogged DPF will, on occasion, catch fire during the process to give you a hand.
Re: Tesla that burned so hot, it melted part of the road
John D Clark's boook "Ignition" covers the destruction of a thick cement floor slab by chlorine difluoride spillage during rocket propellant tests (basically it is such a strong oxidiser that it causes stuff to burn that has already burned.....). That would indeed be impressive, when viewed from a suitable distance...
Re: Tesla that burned so hot, it melted part of the road
From Ignition :
"It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water—with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals—steel, copper, aluminum, etc.—because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride that protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes."
Re: Tesla that burned so hot, it melted part of the road
"For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes."
Decent advice at the best of times. (And a hundred metre start. )
Given the ship was crossing the dateline - west of which is today and east yesterday - the vehicles on board computers might chucked a wobbly at the either the prospect of time travel or the likelihood of ending up the hands of an American driver.
In AU the US PBS (Lehrer) News Hour is always a day behind because it's always yesterday in America.
They must smart at the fact they didn't insist on the dateline being down the centre of the Atlantic.
Still Trump, to augment his annexation of the Gulf of America, might proclaim an American International Dateline so it's always tomorrow first in America. (More Alzheimeric Geriatric Announcements.)
Of course if the dateline follows 180° long. then the redefined prime meridian would pass through the middle of AU around Pine Gap I imagine.
The most surprising part of this story is that there is still commercial shipping operated by a UK-based company.
Why would that be surprising? There are [1]lots of shipping companies in the UK , although many of their ships are flagged elsewhere.
[1] https://www.ukchamberofshipping.com/join/member-directory/shipowners-and-operators
No news is good news
Unfortunately, that's going to be material for the Anti-EV mob on social media.
Re: No news is good news
And fuel for the "trade is bad" brigade. But sometimes shit happens, there's no point denying it, you have to accept it and make sure that your calculations allow for it.
Oops
Guess these ones aint carbon neutral. Feel bad for the owners of the cars and ship
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