Crew evacuated from Zodiac Maritime vehicle carrier in Pacific Ocean after fire
- The 2006-built pure car and truck carrier was on passage from China to Mexico when smoke was witnessed on one of its vehicle decks
- All 22 crew members were evacuated using the vessel’s lifeboat and are being transferred to a nearby containership
- Incident is the latest in a line of serious fires on board large ro-ro type ships
UK shipowner Zodiac Maritime has confirmed fire started within a deck loaded with electric vehicles
ALL crew have been evacuated from a vehicle carrier that has suffered a fire in the Pacific Ocean and are being transferred to a containership in the vicinity.
London-headquartered Zodiac Maritime, owner of the 5,000 ceu pure car and truck carrier Morning Midas (IMO: 9289910), confirmed that the incident occurred at around midnight UCT on June 3, during the vessel’s passage from Yantai, China to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico.
The 2006-built ship is laden with some 3,000 vehicles, with 800 of them said to be electric vehicles.
“Smoke was initially seen emanating from a deck carrying electric vehicles,” said Zodiac Maritime, which confirmed that all crew are safe and accounted for, with no reports of any injuries.
“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.”
Following consultation with the US Coast Guard, all 22 crew have been evacuated via the vessel’s lifeboat and are being transferred to a nearby merchant vessel.
According to AIS data, two containerships appear to be standing by Morning Midas: the Costamare-owned, 9,000 teu COSCO Hellas (IMO: 9308510) and Matson’s 2,600 teu Manukai (IMO: 9244130).
Zodiac Maritime said the company is working closely with emergency responders while a tug is being deployed to support salvage and firefighting operations.
“Our priorities are to ensure the continued safety of the crew and protect the marine environment. We would like to thank all parties involved for their assistance,” it said.
Morning Midas is one of a series of mid-sized PCTCs built by China’s Xiamen Shipbuilding and is understood to be on time charter to China’s SAIC Anji Logistics.
The incident is the latest in a line of fires to have occurred on board large ro-ro type tonnage.
Last month, CLdN’s 8,000 lane metre ro-ro cargoship Delphine (IMO: 9789245) suffered a fire at the port of Zeebrugge, resulting in numerous new cars being written off.
Attention has become more focused in recent years on the carriage of electric vehicles equipped with lithium-ion batteries, which are thought to have contributed to several total loss incidents of vehicle carriers.
Nevertheless, so far none of the incidents have proven to be caused by electric vehicles.
