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SHIPPING Sal Mercogliano Reporting Morning Midas On Fire and Abandoned off the Coast of Alaska \| 3000 cars on board, 800 are EVs PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFhhvr_afws Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
Morning Midas On Fire and Abandoned off the Coast of Alaska \| 3000 cars on board, 800 are EVs br> What's Going on With Shipping? br> Jun 5, 2025 br> 519K subscribers ... 2.4K views ... 4.5K likes br> #supplychain #morningmidas #EVs br> Car Carrier Fire br> June 5, 2025 br> In this episode, Sal Mercogliano — a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner — discusses the fire on board the car carrier MV Morning Midas enroute from China to Mexico on June 4, 2025. br> #supplychain #morningmidas #EVs #fire #carcarrier br> Support What's Going on With Shipping via: Patreon: www.patreon.com/wgowshipping Twitter: @mercoglianos Bluesky: @mercoglianos.bsky.social Facebook: @wgowshipping Email: mercoglianosal@gmail.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0B9AHrs... Marine Traffic marinetraffic.com US Coast Guard Responding to Fire on Car Carrier ‘Morning Midas’ Off Coast Of Alaska; 800 Electric Vehicles On Board https://gcaptain.com/us-coast-guard-r... Photos: Car Carrier ‘Morning Midas’ Catches Fire with Electric Vehicles Off Alaska https://gcaptain.com/photos-car-carri... Roro Ship Glovis car ship vessel discharge vehicle unloading process sea port logistics overseas • Roro Ship Glovis car ship vessel discharge... StacheD Training / @stachedtraining Vehicle Carrier Safety Forum https://www.ics-shipping.org/wp-conte... Recent Car Carrier Fires \| Fremantle Highway \| Grande Costa d'Avorio \| Felicity Ace \| Hoegh Xiamen • Recent Car Carrier Fires \| Fremantle Highw... MV Delphine in Zeebrugge 2025 vs Grande Costa D'Avorio in Newark 2023 \| A Tale of Two Ship Fires • MV Delphine in Zeebrugge 2025 vs Grande Co... Resolve Academy Promotional Video • Video A Look Back at Recent Car Carrier Fires https://gcaptain.com/a-brief-look-bac... Transcript 0:00 on this episode of What's Going On with Shipping the motor vessel Morning Midas is on fire in the middle of the Pacific i'm your host Sal Magaliano welcome to today's episode so we've been covering a lot of ship accidents here recently the most frequent one we seem to be having is these vehicle fires on car carriers we've covered stories like the Fremantle Highway up in the North Sea but probably the most tragic one we covered had to deal with the motor vessel Grancasta D'vorio in the port of Newark New Jersey which resulted in the death of two Newark firefighters we just car covered one last month that took place in Zebra in Belgium well now we have this story from G Captain Malt Humphfort writing it the US Coast Guard is responding to a fire on the 600 foot carrier Morting Midas carrying hundreds of electrical vehicles approximately 300 miles off the coast of Alaska the vessel departed from Yentai China on May 26th with a destination of Lazaro Card Carnatus 1:02 Mexico where it is expected on June 15th according to Equis the 2006 Morning Minus is owned by Hawthorne Navigation out of London with management by Zodiac Maritime Limited here is that statement from Zodiac Maritime zodiac Maritime has launched an emergency response following reports of smoke emanating from its managed vehicle carrier Morning Midas the incident occurred at 0000 UTC on 3 June in the Pacific Ocean during the vessel's passage to Lazaro Cardatus Mexico all crew are safe and accounted for with no reports of injuries the vessel is loaded with around 3,000 vehicles 800 of which are electrical vehicles smoke was initially seen emanating from deck carrying electrical 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 in consultation with the US Coast Guard all 22 crew are safely evacuated via lifeboat that have 2:01 been transferred to a nearby merchant vessel the relevant authorities have been notified and we are working with emergency responders with a tug being deployed to support salvage and firefighting operations our priorities are to continue safety of the crew and protect the marine environment we would like to thank all parties involved morning Midas is a Liberian flagged pure car and truck carrier PCTC built in 2006 she is managed by London headquartered Zodiac Maritime next we have the statement from the US Coast Guard District 17 the Coast Guard is responding to a vessel fire approximately 300 m south of ADAC watch standards at the 17th Coast Guard District Command Center received a distress call Tuesday at approximately 3:15 p.m reporting a fire aboard the cargo ship Morning Midas a 600 ft UK flagged cargo vessel uk flag come on Coast Guard you know this is a Liberian flagged vessel with 22 crew members aboard and reportedly carrying several thousand vehicles watch standards immediately issued an urgent marine 3:00 information broadcast requesting assistance from vessels in the vicinity of morning Midas three good Samaritan vessels responded to the incident watch standards also diverted the crew of the US Coastg Guard cutter Monroe to the area directed the launch of a C130J Super Hercules air crew from Coast Guard station Kodiak and positioned an MH60T J-Hawk helicopter in Adac all 22 crew members aboard the Morning Midas evacuated the ship aboard a life raft and were subsequently rescued by the crew of motor vessel Costco Helas one of the good Samaritan vessels on scene with no reported injuries the status of the fire is currently unknown but smoke is still emanating from the vessel you can see it coming from the stern of the vessel in this image taken by the Coast Guard this is from Rear Admiral Megan Dean the commander of Coast Guard 17th District quote 'As the search and rescue portion of our response concludes our crews are working closely with the vessel's parent company Zodiac Maritime to determine the disposition of the vessel we are grateful for the selfless actions of the three nearby vessels who 4:00 assisted in the response and the crew of motor vessel Costco Helas who helped save 22 lives right now Costco is showing its destination as the Panama Canal i envision they will drop that crew off before that.' The press release concludes 'The Morning Midas is estimated to have approximately 350 metric tons of gas oil and 1,530 metric tonses of very low sulfur fuel oil on board they're also reportedly carrying a total of 3,159 vehicles with 65 being fully electrical vehicles and 681 being partial hybrid electrical vehicles this is based on reports to the Coast Guard and is subject to change pending the development of any new information it appears in these photos that the crew had abandoned ship as sun was setting they probably wanted to get off the vessel to prevent having to find them at night what's interesting to note is you can see the port lifeboat still in its cradle and the Coast Guard makes note 5:00 that they went off the vessel not by lifeboat but by life raft all right let's break down what we think may have happened on board the vessel electrical vehicles on fire get the hell off the vote that's it i I mean there's no other response from Merchant Mariners than that ev fires are the worst fires to fight i am a firefighter i've been a firefighter for 25 years still a captain on my volunteer fire department ev fires are very simple just get them out of the way protect the exposures protect everything else you are not putting them out they're going to burn until those lithium ion batteries complete their thermal runaway and dispel all their energy remember lithium ion doesn't need oxygen you can bury that in the ocean it's still going to keep burning and we're going to talk about the measures that this crew took to prevent the spread of the fire on board and what this means going forward this is the motor vessel Morning Midas a very typical PCTC pure car and truck carrier that we see out there 6,000 vehicle 6:02 capability now that's 6,000 standard size vehicles so if it carries larger vehicles or it's not fully loaded it'll carry less we know this vessel is carrying 3,000 you'll see the ship has a sideport ramp you can see it being kind of extended here a bit and then there's a larger stern ramp on the vessel the best way to envision a carrier is a parking deck a 13 to 14tory parking deck here's a good cutaway it shows you vehicles being loaded up that stern ramp here on the starboard quarter and then up the starboard side ramp and what you have is a series of decks and these decks could be absolutely bumperto-bumper full of vehicles and when you have a fire take place on board these ships the ship the cars are restrained with fabric straps they're ratcheted down uh kind of basically safety straps on the tires and as fires outbreak those straps burn away and you can get the free movement of vehicles on 7:01 the deck as the ship rolls there's a good diagram of about a 6,000 car uh PCTC you'll see the this ship just has the stern ramp here on it but you'll see the the layout basically the decks run the entire length of the vessel below the water line you'll have some water type protection but above the water line those decks will run the length of the vessel and the ramps allow you connect to each of them so the crew is located up here on the very top deck this is where all the crew quarters are where they would eat the bridge up here up forward and back aft here down at the bottom is the engine room the engine is all the way back aft this way you can maximize all the space on here for vehicles now you can close these decks off and seal them by lifting the ramps up by sealing the watertight and uh uh airtight doors there's a ventilation system in here so that when you run 8:00 internal combustion engine vehicles you can be changing out atmospheres in here now in time of fire what you would do is segregate out these decks into zones and these individual zones here can be sealed off you can seal the decks you can seal the hatches you can secure ventilation and if necessary flood the compartment with CO2 on board the ship you'll have a compartment like this full of CO2 canisters and you have the capability to dump the CO2 into those decks into those segregated zones to knock down the oxygen levels in the compartment to prevent uh combustion and fire from happening the problem you have is electrical vehicles if you have a fire on a deck with electrical vehicles you'll seal it off you'll secure the ventilation secure access to the area and flood it with CO2 it doesn't put the fire out it does not put the thermal 9:00 runaway that is taking place in those lithium ion batteries however what it does do is it limits the expansion of that fire over to potentially other vehicles and it prevents the vehicles themselves the material the plastics uh all the other material from burning but you will not stop the thermal runaway that is taking place with those lithium ion batteries and there is nothing possible to be done to do that there is no way to segregate it you can't dump these vehicles over the side uh you just can't and that's why abandoning ship at this point is the best thing for the crew and this has been a feature problem that we have with shipping electrical vehicles on board understand the interior of a car carrier is claustrophobic give you an idea here's a video shot on board a car carrier it just shows you how packed they are take that car deck that you normally park in but put cars everywhere bumper to bumper 10:00 as close as you can and that is the position you find yourselves in moving even between the decks is narrow because of the ladderways associated it's not like you can get in there with firefighting hoses and actually fight these fires it is absolutely a unique environment if you've never been in there where you don't have vehicles you have these big open space decks these are the ramps uh it is a massive massive area and when it's fully full of vehicles and cars and trucks it is just a massive fireload that you have to deal with go ahead and hop over here to marine traffic here is the vessel smack dab in the middle of the North Pacific on that big great circle sailing coming from East Asia all the way across and then heading down to Mexico so the vessel that's providing assistance is this vessel right here Costco uh that is the vessel that we assume picked up the crew from the lifeboat here is the past track of the 11:00 vessel coming out of China through the Straits of Tsushima between Honu and Hokkaido Island and out into the North Pacific here's the track of Morning Midas you'll see weather was fairly good in and around the area about 12 knots uh pretty calm which is good for them they were on track heading at a speed of about 14 knots this is 3 June right around 2200 hours UTC time uh right when you hit roughly around 2,300 UTC is when the vessel stops starts drifting here's Costco Helas coming in at 15.5 knots container ship uh it's going to respond when you send out a distress signal a mayday on your VHF all ships in the area have to respond costco Helas comes into that position to provide the assistance you'll see it starts to follow along with the Morning Midas mayor Sydney is going to sail through the area it's obviously not needed the Costco Helas is 12:00 providing the assistance in the area morning Midas is drifting at this point with the Costco Helas providing assistance you'll see it kind of tracking along here mar Sydney even though it's showing here has drifted out of the area this is the point when obviously the crew is busy fighting fire sealing off those compartments flooding it out but now you see Coast Guard uh Costco Helas is drifting off sailing away at this point probably after the lifeboat and securing the lifeboat from the vessel and now pursuing after morning Midas the important things on a car carrier fire is for the crew to get off when they still can because of the design of these vessels and I noted before that the crew living areas and compartments are all the way up here on the top deck so is the lifeboat lifeboats on port and starboard side are really high up on these car carriers you're talking about 10 to 12 decks potentially up so you're talking about 100 to 120 ft above the water line so to 13:00 lower these lifeboats these are not free falling lifeboats these have to be lowered you need to get these lifeboats off before smoke and heat encumber them so you need to abandon ship at a set period of time so that you don't get trapped on board the vessel and then have to jump this is the northern Pacific even though it's summertime or close to summertime now you don't want to be jumping off even in calm weather the lowest point of approach you really have is either on the bow or the stern or in a side port where you bring the pilot on but that's assuming you can even access this so the crew would have initiated their firefighting plan sealed the decks flooded the compartments with CO2 it is impossible to flood the entire ship with CO2 you just don't have enough CO2 on board but they would have flooded the zone where the fire was taking place and if they had enough CO2 to flood the zones above and below them because heat will travel through the metal deck plates i mentioned the fire that took place on board the motor vessel Deline this was in the port of Zebra in Belgium 14:02 they had 110 electrical vehicles on board they were fortunate to be in port but they did almost a textbook evolution of a shipboard fire i have a video on that i'll have link to this video they were able to seal the compartment flood it with CO2 bring in firefighting tugs to cool the hull meanwhile the shoreside fire brigade brought in nitrogen to pump into the vessel to not just get rid of the oxygen but also to cool the hull and they prevented the spread of the fire beyond the fire deck but this is something you can do when you're in port out in the middle of the North Pacific it's a bit problematic good buddy of the show uh Captain Patrick Durham and his channel Stashed Training talks all about electrical vehicle fires in particularly one of the interesting videos he has is a video that debunks the statistics that sit there and say that EVs are safer than internal combustion engines and he details all the issues with having to 15:00 fight these fires matter of fact we just had a fire down in Jacksonville Florida not on board a vessel but this was on a in a parking deck and he goes in depth talking about that i've talked to firefighters down in Jacksonville who fought a shipboard fire on the Hoy men back in 2020 and that actually injured nine firefighters big shout out to Captain Chip Dale and his uh report on that absolutely well done the guideline that's being put out by the International Chamber of Shipping is basically if you cannot get that fire under control in 15 minutes to seal the deck smother it with shipboard firefighting and get off that's it that is basically the uh standard that's being done it sounds like the morning minus crew implemented this standard actually going a little bit beyond that attempting to get that fire under control and then when realizing they could not abandon the vessel fortunately uh the Costco vessel was close by to pick up the crew uh you really don't 16:01 want to be abandoning in the middle of the North Pacific unless you know you're going to get picked up a lifeboat bobbing in the North Pacific is a very small thing to find there's electronic tracking on on them so they can be located uh but now the vessel is a drift and on fire and salvage teams will be sent out to try to get a lasso on it we've seen this before back in August of 2023 we did a whole video on car carrier fires talking about the Freemantal Highway Felicity Acemen and Grand Casta D'vorio and then in April we did this video a tale of two ship fires comparing what happened on board Delphine in Zugger with the Grand Casa Devorio in Newark uh there is a lot of potential training for merchant mariners and shoreside fire fighting teams when it comes to shipboard firefightings my buddies down at Resolve Marine down in Fort Lauderdale Florida provide a great service for doing this but obviously a 17:00 ship out in the middle of the Pacific has to use the internal crew for that uh unfortunately a small crew 22 people on board not a lot to fight a fire of this magnitude and ships have got to be able to prioritize and in this case this the the the the absolute paramount thing has to be life safety do what you can to mitigate the fire on board but then save the crew and if you can bring on salvage teams to try to salvage the vessel and cargo we'll keep you up to date with this and any further developments when it comes to global shipping if you're new to the channel hey take a moment subscribe to the channel and hit the bell so you be alerted about new videos as they come out leave a comment share it across social media and if you can support the page how do you do that you hit the super thanks button down below or head on over to Patreon and become a monthly yearly member until our next video this is S signing

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