Port Authority Mulls Fire Protection after Deadly Ship Blaze

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is considering creating its own firefighting force for Port Newark after a huge cargo ship fire led to the deaths of two veteran firefighters.

“As the investigations unfold, and we get lessons learned from this, everything is on the table for consideration,” Beth Rooney, port director with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, said during a press conference in Elizabeth on Friday.

Once the fire, which has been burning more than 30 hours, is extinguished, federal agencies will work with state and local investigators with the owners of the vessels “to identify the root cause of the fire and the subsequent fatalities to prevent similar incidents from ever happening again,” said Capt. Zeita Merchant, commander of the Port of New York and New Jersey and commander of Coast Guard sector New York.

There was no discussion about staffing or response issues on Friday morning, but Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said during a press conference on Thursday that firefighters did not have adequate training or equipment to fight a fire aboard a towering ship.

Newark officials said the fire got out of hand because the initial efforts to contain it were begun with small diameter hoses that could not bring enough water to the decks where the fire was already raging.

A firefighters union official said while they took over the 1-inch diameter hoses that were already laid down, they did not have the volume or pressure needed to adequately push back the fire because those hoses were too small.

However, there is a possibility Newark’s larger 2.5-inch hose lines would not connect to the equipment on the European-built ship, the Grande Costa D’Avorio, according to reporting in The New York Times.

When asked to confirm the discrepancy in the fire hose connection on Friday, Merchant said “that is currently a part of our investigation.”

“We can’t confirm that at this point in time, but it’s a part of what we’re looking at in the investigation and that information will come out,” Merchant said Friday.

While the city initially said a brigade was launched by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the ports of New York Harbor, the agency said that was not the case.

The Port Authority said that at all non-airport facilities, firefighting is handled by the local municipality with jurisdictional responsibility.

“The Port Authority provides support and assistance in these efforts including regular classroom and on-site shipboard orientation training to fire department personnel and first responders,” said a spokeswoman.

When asked how frequently firefighters have shipboard training, Merchant said the Coast Guard runs its own regular trainings.

“That is training that is done here in this area locally, as well as throughout the New York and New Jersey area so that training is done regularly from a federal standpoint and then they also conduct their training at a state and local level.”

Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Frage said city firefighters are trained at the county and state levels, but also receive instruction from the Port Authority.

“It’s ongoing. It’s important that we do it together in a sense, and that’s how we train,” Frage said.

The fire will likely continue to burn for days, officials said.

“At this point, the fire is going to burn for a couple more days probably. It’s impossible to give you really any kind of definitive timeline,” said Tom Wiker, the president of Gallagher Marine Systems and a representative of Grimaldi Deep Sea, the Italian operator of the massive cargo ship.

Gov. Phil Murphy also said officials are monitoring whether the ship is listing to one side as it takes on more water from the firefighting efforts.

“It is clear we are dealing with an extremely difficult set of circumstances aboard a very large cargo ship,” Murphy said at an unrelated event in Long Branch.

The ship was listing 3 degrees toward the dock on Friday, Murphy said. A shift of 5 to 6 degrees is “the danger zone,” he said.

The governor said both the Coast Guard and a private marine firefighting company are “poking holes through the hole to let trapped water out.”

”There is no timeline as to if or when the ship would reach the danger zone” for listing, Murphy said.

The U.S. Coast Guard, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Newark Fire Department and Gallagher Marine Systems spoke to the media Friday morning to provide updates on the firefighting efforts.

Video from the scene earlier in the day showed smoke and flames still billowing from the top deck of the ship and Wiker said teams continue to fight fires on several decks of the structure nearly 40 hours after the first calls for help were made.

“There’s a team of 20-plus firefighters and additional salvage support, who have been fighting this fire around the clock since it began,” Wiker said. A New York City fire boat and other firefighting resources were deployed to the pier and waterside.

No cause was given for the fire, which broke out about 9:38 p.m. Wednesday in Port Newark.

Newark firefighters Augusto “Augie” Acabou, 45, and Wayne “Bear” Brooks Jr., 49, died after they were trapped aboard the 692-foot long ship Wednesday night. A GoFundMe set up by the Newark Firefighters Union had raised more than $13,000 as of Friday.

Officials said there are no reports of oil leaking from the vessel or poor air quality in the area.

However, sulfur dioxide, which can be harmful to the lungs, was detected twice Thursday night near the stern of the ship, officials said. But, those levels were not seen outside the immediate area.

Water testing was set to commence Friday afternoon, and officials said they will monitor for byproducts and hazardous materials that may have entered the water due to firefighting activities.

The ship was carrying 1,200 vehicles when it caught fire, the ship operator said. Firefighters from Newark, Elizabeth and numerous other municipalities fought the fire.

In addition to the two deaths, five other firefighters were injured but were expected to survive.

Wiker said Donjon Marine Co. is “doing their best to do assessment (but) our primary objective is safety.”

“So we’re going to do the utmost to make sure that we do our best to fight this fire but we’re going to do is put the safety responders as our first objective,” Wiker said.

The port, which includes marine terminals in Newark, Elizabeth, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Bayonne, is the busiest in the country. Officials determined there has been little or no impact to the container terminals at the port.

“The good news is that the impact on the container terminals has been completely negligible. About 99 and a half percent of our container activity is un-impacted by these events,” said Rooney, port director.

However, she noted that there was a modest amount of cargo activity impacted. “So, additional car carriers that were expected to call the port within the last 36 hours have been impacted. They remain at anchor until we can get those ships in order to work on that,” Rooney said.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

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Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at [email protected] .