A ship carrying Toyota 3900 vehicles from Japan to Portland, Oregon, caught fire on Tuesday. It is unclear how many vehicles were damaged in the blaze. The only information available was that the fire was put out after a worker sealed part of the ship.

“About every two years this new century, the oceans of our planet seem to get hungry for cars.” John Pearley Huffman may have been making a prophecy in this October’s issue of Car and Driver. Huffman’s article told the story of Mazda’s 2006 car loss from the Cougar Ace capsizing, and he also said that it was about time again for the Car Gods to give another sacrifice to Mother Ocean (Volvo had an incident in 2002 and Hyundai had one in 2004.)

So is the automotive world safe again on the high seas for another 24 months? Then again in the slowing economy, if the boat wasn’t loaded with Priuses it may have been a blessing in disguise.

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