'We are Heartbroken' Ship Worker Tells Families of Fallen NJ FFs

Ted Sherman

nj.com

(TNS)

In a dramatic day of testimony, the chief mate for the Grande Costa d’Avorio fought to keep his composure as he described the desperate struggle on board as a fast-burning blaze swept through his vessel.

The first thing Benito LaFauci said he saw was an unexpected flash of fire on Deck 10 as a yellow Jeep Wrangler pushed an inoperable Toyota up the ramp and suddenly burst into flames. He described the mad scramble to smother the burning engine, discharging one fire extinguisher after another, to little avail.

As the fire grew despite the efforts of the ship’s crew, the Jeep’s tires exploded, he told a Coast Guard hearing board on Thursday.

“The situation was very, very bad,” LaFauci said, in a tearful retelling of his discovery that two firefighters had gone missing. a crumbled tissue pressed to his face.

He then addressed the families of those firefighters — Augusto “Augie” Acabou, 45, and Wayne “Bear” Brooks Jr., 49 — who have been at the hearings every day.

“I’d like to say on behalf of myself and my crew we are heartbroken that two brave firefighters lost their lives on board the Grande Costa d’Avorio,” he said in heavily accented English, his eyes tearing up as he offered his condolences. “We try our best to extinguish the fire.”

He bowed his head and sobbed for several moments.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

The testimony of LaFauci and later of Capt. Alessandro Moretti, the master of the Italian-flagged vessel, offered the first public comments from the ship’s crew regarding the deadly fire on July 5 at Port Newark that killed Acabou and Brooks after they became disoriented and then trapped on Deck 10. One was later found ensnared in the tie-down straps used to secure the more than 1,200 vehicles that had been loaded on board.

U.S. Coast Guard officials say the hearings, being held at the Union Township City Council Chambers in Union County and being livestreamed at: https://livestream.com/uscginvestigations, will examine the handling procedures the loading of cargo, the initial response actions by the ship’s crew, and the ill-fated efforts by the Newark Fire Department to get it under control.

LaFauci said the loading of the cargo had nearly been completed at 9 p.m. when the fire broke out in a Jeep being used as a “pusher” vehicle to maneuver non-running cars onto the ship.

“I immediately shouted to the stevedore there was a fire. He jumped out of his car,” he said, but apparently left the engine running. He said he called the duty officer to shut down the exhaust system bringing fresh air into the huge compartment and called the captain.

In testimony on Wednesday, the driver of the Jeep told the hearing board that he had grabbed a fire extinguisher in an effort to knock down the fire. But LaFauci said he did not see any of the longshoremen take action, other than to quickly get out. He claimed it was the crew who used the portable fire extinguishers and then the ship’s own fire hoses to try to attack the flames

“There was very black smoke. We had a problem breathing,” he said.

He said the captain then gave the order to prepare the ship for the deployment of its CO2 fire suppression system, which required the shutting of all watertight doors to seal the vessel’s fire control areas to cut off the fire’s oxygen supply. A malfunction on one door, however, left a large ramp entrance open.

“I saw a (red) fault light appear. We could not operate the door,” said LaFauci.

The flood of CO2 gas was ineffective.

By then, he said the Newark Fire Department began arriving on scene and he went down to meet them.

Was there any panic or sense of disaster, he was asked.

“No,” said the ship’s officer. “Everyone appeared calm.”

Moretti testified he had been in his cabin on his phone when he got the call that there was a fire.

“I put on some shoes. T-shirt and pants. Grabbed a radio and ran to the bridge,” the captain said. “The fire alarm was ringing.”

He made a ship-wide announcement on the PA system that the alert was not a false alarm, and there was in fact a fire on Deck 10. The ship’s own small fire brigade began manning hoses. But within minutes, Moretti said the situation had grown increasingly dire. Black smoke was coming up the ramp from Deck 10. The CO2 system had failed. And the fire was spreading.

“They were not able to extinguish the fire,” he said. “My priority was to put the crew in a safe position. It’s a closed box. I told them to leave the garage scene.”

He ordered the team fighting the fire to back out.

“They left hoses running so the water was still spraying, but there wasn’t anyone there anymore,” he testified. They made a call for help.

“I called by radio,” he said of his mayday on a marine channel. “This is Grande Costa d’Avorio. Fire on board. Berth 18.”

Moretti said when Newark firefighters arrived he told them where the fire had started and that all crew members had been evacuated from the lower decks.

The hearings continue on Friday.

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Ted Sherman may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL