The Newark hearth division’s lack of coaching and familiarity with marine firefighting throughout a lethal cargo ship hearth on the East Coast’s largest port in July 2023 amounted to a “failure of leadership,” the pinnacle of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board stated Tuesday.
The board met publicly in Washington to unveil its findings concerning the inferno contained in the Italian-flagged Grande Costa D’Avorio, which smoldered for practically every week and resulted within the deaths of two Newark firefighters.
Along with singling out Newark’s hearth division for criticism, the board additionally discovered that the fireplace ignited when cargo loaders used a Jeep that wasn’t designed for such work to push autos into place. It additionally discovered {that a} carbon dioxide hearth suppression system was ineffective as a result of a big hydraulic door needed to be closed for it to function accurately, and will solely be shut from inside, the place the fireplace was raging in cramped situations, with autos parked as narrowly as 4 inches aside.
“I hope that Newark fire department leadership is listening. This isn’t just a failure of communication. This was a failure of leadership. That’s what this was,” NTSB chairperson Jennifer Homendy stated.
Board investigators stated the division’s chiefs “uncovered firefighters to pointless threat,” first responders weren’t acquainted sufficient with marine firefighting and the division lacked a fireplace management plan for the ship.
“Staff feels that Newark Fire Division, responding land-based firefighters should not have gone into the space,” investigator Bart Barnum stated Tuesday.
The necessity for extra coaching, Barnum stated, was his principal takeaway from the accident.
“You have to be properly trained when you respond to a marine vessel fire,” he stated. “In this particular instance, if they had been, they should never have went inside.”
In an announcement, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Public Security Director Emanuel Miranda praised the bravery of the firefighters. In addition they stated that each firefighter not on long-term medical depart — about 540 out of 600 firefighters — was licensed in “Maritime Firefighting Awareness Training.”
Firefighters from throughout the nation have come to pay their respects on the funeral for one of many firefighters who died preventing the cargo ship hearth. Pat Battle experiences.
“The events that transpired have informed every endeavor of our entire firefighting force,” Baraka and Miranda added.
A message in search of remark was left with Ports America, the corporate overseeing cargo operations on the port.
The blaze ignited because the ship was being loaded with about 920 largely used autos destined for West Africa. Port staff had been utilizing a Jeep Wrangler to push nonrunning autos into the ship when a employee heard “clunking noises” and one other operator reported seeing “flaming fireballs dripping” from the Jeep, in keeping with the board. The Jeep had pushed 37 different autos on board by then, investigators stated.
Federal guidelines require that any car used to push different autos onto a ship meet requirements for such work. The Jeep did not meet that Occupational Security and Well being Administration customary and was straining past its capability, the board’s investigators stated.
“Maybe it was a readily available vehicle,” one investigator stated Tuesday. “Maybe they overlooked OSHA requirements that it couldn’t be used in that manner — just speculating.”
The hearth started on deck 10 of the 12-deck ship, investigators stated, and the ship’s crew had activated the carbon dioxide suppression system, nevertheless it required the ship’s exterior doorways to be closed to function successfully. As a result of the door on the highest deck could not be closed besides from contained in the ship, it remained open, in keeping with the board’s presentation.
Newark firefighters rapidly responded — and received misplaced contained in the vessel, the board stated, as darkish smoke billowed into the sky.
“We cannot find our way out,” the board stated one firefighter relayed. “We are lost.”
Newark firefighters Augusto “Augie” Acabou and Wayne “Bear” Brooks Jr. had been killed. Firefighting boats finally blasted water cannons on the ship for days to extinguish the blaze.
Board members famous that kinfolk of the fallen firefighters had been current on the assembly and expressed condolences to them.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark’s port, depends on native hearth departments to help with fires because it doesn’t have its personal firefighting company.
Authorities earlier declined to reply whether or not firefighters ought to have gone into hurt’s strategy to put the blaze out when no lives gave the impression to be in danger, with the ship’s 28 crew members secure and accounted for. Fritz Frage, who was Newark’s public security director on the time, stated the town and port authority have persevering with conversations about coaching. He didn’t supply specifics.
