The 600-foot (183-meter) Morning Midas was built in 2006 and sails under a Liberian flag. The car and truck carrier left Yantai, China, on May 26, according to the industry site marinetraffic.com. It was headed to a major Pacific port in Mexico.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it would allow the fire to burn because the cars’ lithium-ion batteries could explode. The ship’s crew escaped on a lifeboat.