Electric Vehicle Eyed in Small Container Fire on Maersk Ship

A small container fire aboard the Luna Maersk containership in the Aegean Sea has been resolved as an investigation into the causes gets underway.

Reports suggest that the container involved may have been transporting a used electric vehicle.

The ship was loaded with 1,517 containers and was en route from Thessaloniki, Greece to Algeciras, Spain, when the fire was reported in a single container.

The ship subsequently returned to the Port of Pireaus where the affected container was removed. AIS data shows the ship was underway to the Thessaloniki as of Wednesday.

No injuries were reported.

The incident comes as the container shipping industry is striving to reduce container fires at sea following several incidents both large and small. The shipping industry is currently grappling with the transportation of electric vehicles by sea.

The carriage of electric vehicles containing lithium-Ion batteries presents new challenges to maritime transportation and firefighting. The issue came into sharp focus this summer with the fire aboard the roll-on/roll-off vessel Fremantle Highway in the North Sea which claimed the life one seafarer. The ship was reportedly carrying some 500 new electric vehicles.

The U.S. Coast Guard has previously warned about the dangers of saltwater intrusion with lithium-Ion batteries after Hurricane Ian flooded South Florida, exposing potentially thousands of EVs to saltwater.

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