The U.S. Coast Guard’s multi-day hearing into last July’s fatal ship fire in Port Newark concluded on Thursday with more testimony about shortcomings in the response to the fire.
James Kupko, a battalion chief for the Newark Fire Division, said firefighters entered the cargo ship Grande Costa D’Avorio with no understanding of the ship’s layout, inadequate training to deal with ship fires, and dealing with a language barrier while trying to work with the ship’s Italian crew.
Kupko’s testimony came after the families of Wayne Brooks Jr. and Augusto Acabou — Newark firefighters who died responding to the blaze — spoke out Wednesday, calling for the ouster of Rufus Jackson, Newark’s assistant public safety director who was serving as the city’s fire chief on the night of the fire.
Ed Kelly, the head of the International Association of Fire Fighters, also called for Jackson’s removal and for Newark to restore the fire division as an independent department. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka consolidated the city’s police and fire departments into a Department of Public Safety in 2015.
“The Newark Fire [Division] needs new leadership that reports directly to the mayor, not a division of public safety reporting to police officers,” Kelly wrote on X on Wednesday. “It’s time to prioritize firefighting in the City of Newark.”
