In July 2023, a tragic fire occurred aboard an Italian-flagged cargo ship at Port Newark. The fire lasted for almost a week and tragically led to the deaths of two firefighters from Newark.
According to federal investigators, the fire was started by a Jeep that was carrying used cars onto the ship. The Jeep began dripping “flaming fireballs” as it struggled to load more vehicles than its capacity, resulting in the ignition of the fire.
The National Transportation Safety Board held a public meeting in Washington to disclose the details of the incident on Tuesday. They shared their findings about the fire on the Grande Costa D’Avorio, emphasizing the Jeep’s role in causing the tragic event that unfolded at the port.
In addition to using an unrated Jeep to push vehicles into position on the ship, the board said that a carbon dioxide fire suppression system was ineffective because a garage door had to be closed for it to operate correctly, and could only be shut from inside, where the fire was raging in cramped conditions, with vehicles parked as narrowly as 4 inches (10 centimeters) apart.
The NTSB also singled out the Newark Fire Division for criticism, saying its chiefs “exposed firefighters to unnecessary risk.” The first responders were not familiar enough with marine firefighting, and the city’s fire department lacked a fire control plan for the ship.
“Staff feels that Newark Fire Division, responding land-based firefighters should not have gone into the space,” one of the investigators said Tuesday.
Messages seeking comment were left with the Newark Fire Division and with Ports America, the company overseeing cargo operations at the port.
The blaze ignited as the ship was being loaded with about 920 mostly used vehicles enroute to West Africa. Port workers were using a Jeep Wrangler to push nonrunning vehicles into the ship when a worker heard “clunking noises” and another operator reported seeing “flaming fireballs dripping” from the Jeep, according to the board. The Jeep had pushed 37 other vehicles on board by that point, investigators said.
Federal rules require that any vehicle used to push other vehicles onto a ship meets standards for such work. The Jeep didn’t meet that Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard and was straining beyond its capacity, the board’s investigators said.
“Maybe it was a readily available vehicle,” one investigator said Tuesday. “Maybe they overlooked OSHA requirements that it couldn’t be used in that manner — just speculating.”
The fire began on deck 10 of the 12-deck ship, investigators said, and the ship’s crew had activated the carbon dioxide suppression system, but it required the ship’s exterior garage doors to be closed to operate effectively. Because the door on the top deck couldn’t be closed except from inside the ship, it remained open, according to the board’s presentation.
Newark firefighters quickly responded — and got lost inside the vessel, the board said, as dark smoke billowed into the sky.
“We cannot find our way out,” the board said one firefighter relayed. “We are lost.”
Newark firefighters Augusto “Augie” Acabou and Wayne “Bear” Brooks Jr. were killed. Firefighting boats ultimately blasted water cannons at the ship for days to extinguish the blaze.
Board members noted that relatives of the fallen firefighters were present at the meeting and expressed condolences to them.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark’s port, relies on local fire departments to assist with fires since it doesn’t have its own firefighting agency.
Authorities earlier declined to answer whether firefighters should have gone into harm’s way to put the blaze out when no lives appeared to be at risk, with the ship’s 28 crew members safe and accounted-for. Fritz Frage, who was Newark’s public safety director at the time, said the city and port authority have continuing conversations about training. He didn’t offer specifics.
