The U.S. Coast Guard’s hearing into the fatal fire aboard a cargo ship at Port Newark last July continued in its second day on Thursday, highlighted by the emotional testimony of the ship’s chief mate. Benito LaFauci was second in command on the Grande Costa D’Avorio on July 5 as thousands of cars and trucks were being loaded onto the ship. He was there when a Jeep that was being used for the loading work burst into flames and the fire spread.
“We started to discharge the first fire extinguisher,” LaFauci said. “When I discharged it, the flames were going down, but when I retreated to take another fire extinguisher, the flames grew up again.” LaFauci grew emotional as he recalled watching Newark firefighters try to respond to the blaze, and when it became apparent that tragedy had struck.
“They stopped the firefighting operation to start a rescue operation,” LaFauci said. “The chief firefighters reported to me that two firefighters were missing.” Those two firefighters — Wayne Brooks, Jr. and Augusto Acabou — died that night.
Investigators also heard from Jorge Tabadoa, the general manager of Ports America, the company that was in charge of the ship-loading operation. Tabadoa testified that he had concerns about the safety of using old, worn vehicles like the Jeep to push other cars onto the ship. A plan to use different equipment, he said, was met with pushback from Grimaldi, the shipping company that operated the Grande Costa D’Avorio. “We don’t know what kind of condition those units are. So we are trying to switch from pushing to towing and using tow trucks instead of using vehicles to push other vehicles,” Tabadoa said, “which they didn’t like very much because the production drops.”
The hearing will continue on Friday and through next week.
