An intense fire — still burning — has consumed large chunks of a car-carrying ship floating aimlessly in the Pacific Ocean off Alaska. New images released by the Coast Guard show large holes in the side of the ship, which has been abandoned by its crew.

The Morning Midas was carrying 3,000 cars to Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico, from Yantai, China, when the fire broke out on a deck carrying nearly 800 electric and hybrid vehicles. The crew of 22 was forced to abandon ship in a lifeboat after they were unable to put out the fire.

The first salvage vessel has reached the ship, a full week after the fire started. Resolve Marine says a team of salvage experts and specialist equipment is on scene to assess the 600-foot-long vessel. Initial indications are that the vessel’s hull appears to have remained watertight.

The first of two tugs with firefighting equipment won’t be on scene for nearly a week, meaning the fire is expected to continue to burn.

Zodiac Maritime, which manages the ship, has limited ability to monitor onboard conditions until the salvage team arrives. The company says there are no signs of pollution leaking from the ship, but an environmental pollution control plan and spill response equipment are on standby if that changes.

The Coast Guard says the vessel is now about 220 miles south of Adak in the Aleutian Islands and drifting northeast at 1.8 miles per hour. On Monday, the conditions near the ship included 45- to 50-knot winds and high seas.

“The safety of the public, responders, and vessel crews operating in the area remains our top priority,” the commander of the Coast Guard’s Seventeenth District, Rear Admiral Megan Dean, says. “We are working closely with Zodiac Maritime to ensure a safe and effective plan to address the fire and mitigate any potential impacts to the environment.”

The Coast Guard says it is continuing overflights of the ship and is tracking the vessel’s position. It is conducting drift analysis with information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The cause of the fire remains unknown, but lithium batteries used in EVs are blamed for a number of fires. A car carrier caught fire in the North Sea in 2023, killing one crewman. The owner of the ship said the fire was likely to have started from an EV battery.

Insurers have also raised concerns about an increasing risk of fires on car carriers, an industry site, Container News, reports.