Firefighters Die After Being Trapped in Burning Ship

(UnitedVoice.com) – A fire on a cargo ship ended in tragedy last week when two firefighters died in the blazing wreck. The accident happened in a port in New Jersey when several vehicles on a car transporter caught fire. The local mayor has paid tribute to the dead men.

Around 9:25 p.m. on July 5, firefighters were called out to Port Newark, New Jersey, after reports of a fire on an Italian-registered car farrier, the Grande Costa d’Avorio. Chief Rufus Jackson told reporters that when they arrived, they found five to seven vehicles on fire on the ship’s level 10 deck and tried to put it out. Unfortunately, the fire defeated their efforts and quickly spread to the level 11 and 12 decks.

As the firefighters were pushed back by the expanding blaze, two of them were trapped. Their colleagues tried to rescue them but couldn’t find them in the smoke-filled car decks. They called in more rescue companies from other cities and eventually found the missing men, but by that time, they were dead.

Firefighting efforts continue aboard the docked Grande Costa D’Avorio cargo ship, carrying more than a thousand vehicles in Newark Port, USA. Two firefighters were killed, and five more injured while attempting to subdue the blaze pic.twitter.com/8xYJsXnCYV

— RT (@RT_com) July 7, 2023

As of July 7, the fire was still burning, and firefighters said they expected it to continue for several more days. Governor Phil Murphy (D) said the fire has spread further, extending down to level 8 and now involving about 300 feet of the ship’s length.

The Newark firefighters who responded on Wednesday have now been replaced by specialist maritime firefighters hired by the ship’s owner, but they’re having problems; debris from the fire has blocked the ship’s drains, so water from fire hoses is collecting in the bilges and threatening her stability. On Friday, Murphy said the ship was listing three degrees; if that increases to five or six degrees, there’s a risk of her capsizing and hitting the dock.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) praised the firefighters and called the deaths a tragedy for Newark and “all firefighters who know what it means to go in a burning structure.”