'Deaths were Preventable,' Family of Fallen NJ FFs Say

Ted Sherman

nj.com

(TNS)

The families have come each day, listening silently to the litany of failures that apparently contributed to the loss of two firefighters who died in the dark hold of a ship filled with old cars.

There was the testimony of the battalion commander who had no experience fighting shipboard fires before leading the men below deck and the nightmarish details of the futile search to find the firefighters after a frantic mayday call by a captain. They heard of the ship crew’s inability to effectively deploy a fire suppression system and the longshoremen who used a 16-year-old Jeep known to be prone to dangerous overheating to push an inoperable SUV on board. There was also testimony about the Newark fireboat that had been out of service for months due to lack of maintenance.

Witnesses spoke as well about the lack of any marine fire training whatsoever to prepare for a disaster at the largest port on the East Coast.

The family members of Augusto “Augie” Acabou and Wayne “Bear” Brooks Jr. who died on Deck 10 of the freighter on the night of July 5 spoke out angrily at a brief press conference following the testimony Wednesday by Assistant Newark Public Safety Director Rufus Jackson, the city’s fire chief that night.

“My family and I are deeply, deeply disturbed, upset, and heartbroken all over again by the things that we heard these last two weeks, especially today,” said Michele Brooks, the widow of Wayne Brooks.

Miguel Acabou, the younger brother of Augie Acabou, told reporters that the testimony by Jackson and others was “extremely upsetting” to his family.

“The bottom line, clearly, clearly, is that Augie and Wayne’s deaths were preventable,” he said.

Their attorney, Mark Apostolos, said the testimony over the past two weeks before members of the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board have presented “new facts and new stories” that have unfolded, “many of which have discrepancies within them.”

In particular, he recalled the testimony of longshoremen who operated the Jeep blamed for starting the blaze after a fire erupted in its engine compartment.

“There’s been testimony now that the vehicle had a long standing history of experiencing mechanical issues and was in fact taken out of service on that particular day. Despite that, those workers continue to use that Jeep pusher vehicle until it set ablaze and ultimately caused this massive inferno and death trap that led to the death of these two great firefighters,” said Apostolos.

He pointed as well to members of the ship’s crew who failed to effectively deploy the CO2 fire suppression system because they failed to close off the watertight door on Deck 12, allowing oxygen to continue flowing in the compartment where the fire was contained.

But he said the city’s own “lack of leadership, preparation and ultimately experience” was particularly upsetting to the families.

The families have already filed a notice with the city, the ship’s owners, and the companies that were responsible for loading the vessel, regarding a planned lawsuit.

Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents Newark firefighters, was outspoken about what he said were the city’s failures and, in particular, Jackson’s leadership of the fire department.

Jackson served as chief until he was made the city’s assistant public safety director in September in a move that a spokeswoman said was unrelated to the July fire.

“The Newark Fire Department needs new leadership. Period,” said Kelly at the press conference.

Kelly took aim at the former fire chief’s testimony that both of the Newark fireboats were in service on the night of the fire. “The testimony he provided today, in my opinion, perjured himself,” said Kelly.

Following Jackson’s testimony, a Coast Guard witness testified that the main fireboat was in fact out of service for months before the July 5 fire because of a lack of maintenance.

“They let those boats rot,” said Kelly.

A spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jackson, who testified all Wednesday morning, said he personally never went through shipboard firefighting training, nor had he ever responded to a fire on board a ship at Port Newark. At the same time, he acknowledged, as had been referenced by earlier department witnesses, that some fire apparatus on the night of the fire aboard the Grande Costa d’Avorio had been out of service. That included the department’s the so-called “cascade” truck, a specialized unit that can quickly refill air bottles at the scene of the fire.

Others appearing before the Coast Guard hearing had said a shortage of spare air tanks had been major issue at the Port Newark fire.

When asked whether the department had standard operating procedures for shipboard firefighting, Jackson replied, “there is none.”

He said he was first alerted to the the incident with a call from the dispatch center shortly after the initial alarms were reported and turned on his radio. Soon afterward, he heard the fire was under control. But when he heard the mayday about two firefighters missing, he drove to the port.

It was a difficult environment, he recalled. Firefighters were climbing up and down 10 flights of stairs in the summertime heat. “They took a beating, those guys,” Jackson said. “We needed more (air) bottles. More equipment. It was a tough language barrier.”

By contrast, when members of a rescue crew from the Fire Department of New York arrived to help search for the missing firefighters, he noted “they were equipped with everything they needed…They just went right in and went to work.”

A Newark rescue team came upon Acabou wedged between an SUV and light truck, about 100 feet from the stairwell where he and Brooks had entered the compartment with other firefighters seeking to track down the source of the fire.

The Fire Department of New York found Brooks much later more than 200 feet from the port stairwell. After the body of Brooks was taken off the ship, Jackson said the Newark Fire Department ceased its firefighting efforts aboard the Grande Costa d’Avorio, where fire continued to burn for six days.

“We were done,” he said.

The hearings conclude on Thursday at the municipal building in Union Township.