INCHEON -- Firefighters had almost extinguished a big fire on a Panama-registered car carrier on Wednesday, but more than 1,400 used cars and 5,000 tires on board were completely destroyed, fire officials said.

The 52,422-ton Auto Banner anchored at the South Korean port of Incheon caught fire Monday morning. It was loaded with 2,438 second-hand cars bound for Libya.

Efforts to put out the fire continued for three days amid heavy smoke and extreme heat that hovered around 300 C degrees. Fire fighters drilled 13 big holes through the 13-mm steel plates of the ship's side to discharge smoke and heat from the inside.

"The suppression of the fire has been almost completed, although embers still remain a bit on the deck of the ship's stern," Park Seong-seok, the chief of an Incheon fire station, said, adding that damage was confirmed from the 13-floor ship's 9th floor to 13th.

The vessel entered the port from the United States on Saturday and was scheduled to leave for Libya on Tuesday.

The ship's 28 crew members safely evacuated when the fire broke out. (Yonhap)