‘It’s daunting. It’s extremely difficult...’ Here’s why it’s tough to fight fires on huge ships.

Fireboats pour water on the Grande Costa D’Avorio, where two Newark firefighters died here battling the blaze that began on Wednesday.Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media

As the fire grew on Wednesday night, Deck 10 was turning deadly.

Inside the tight confines of the Grande Costa d’Avorio, it would have been dark inside the large ship with heavy black smoke from the fire filling low-ceiling compartments making it all-but-impossible to see anything, say marine safety experts. Cars, trucks and other vehicles would typically have been packed tightly together, the lashings that held them fast to the decks an unseen obstacle course. And those experts say it would have already been unbearably hot with the heat quickly building as it reflected off the steel walls of the vessel.

Before the night was over, two veteran Newark firefighters missing in the inferno — Augusto “Augie” Acabou, 45, and Wayne “Bear” Brooks Jr., 49 — would lose their way and ultimately their lives amid tragic mayday calls over the radio. Five others were injured, sparking growing questions in the aftermath about the preparedness and training of a department that is seldom called upon to handle major fires on the waterfront.

While the U.S. Coast Guard along with the National Transportation Safety Board and state and local agencies are investigating a fire that still continues to burn, there is already talk of change.

“At this point, all federal agencies — state, local levels, in addition to the owners of the vessels — will be working closely together to identify the root cause of the fire and the subsequent fatalities to prevent similar incidents from ever happening again,” said Capt. Zeita Merchant, captain of the Port of New York and New Jersey and commander of Coast Guard Sector New York.

The Coast Guard, which has a fire task force that comes together to train on a regular basis, would not be more specific about the frequency of that training, other than to say it occurs regularly.

“We will continue to do that training, but that is part of what we do and we oversee on a regular basis here in the port,” Merchant said.

Port Authority officials, meanwhile, indicate they are now considering creating their own fire department for the ports, which include the region’s piers and marine terminals in Newark, Elizabeth, Bayonne, Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Newark authorities have said little about the decision to put firefighters into the ship, and no one has said if there may have been anyone on the ship when firefighters arrived.

Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Frage disclosed that the city currently has an agreement with the Port Authority regarding how the city responds to fires at Port Newark. Going forward, he said they were scheduling additional training regarding such incidents.

Yet a cargo ship fire is a very complicated and risky endeavor, said Capt. Morgan McManus, who has sailed aboard tankers and drill ships, carried ordinance for the U.S. Navy throughout the Pacific, and now serves as master of the training ship Empire State at State University of New York Maritime College in New York City.

“It’s daunting,” he said. “It’s extremely difficult.”

While most ship fires that occur within any port are typically handled by local fire departments, he said such incidents — in part because they are so rare — represent a whole different world for those who typically rush into burning houses and tall buildings to battle the flames.

“It’s a foreign environment for shore-based firefighters,” explained McManus of shipboard fires such as the blaze that continues to burn through the Grande Costa d’Avorio.

At the same time, he called it a hazardous place that warranted the current decision to keep firefighters off the boat and continue to pump water on board in an effort to eventually contain it.

“If I can avoid putting a human in that situation, I’m going to use the tools I have,” he said. “You don’t risk life to put it out. You contain it and let it smolder.”

Making the fight even more challenging was the nature of the fire that began on Wednesday night in New Jersey while the ship was tied up in Port Newark, fueled by more than 1,000 cars, trucks and other vehicles on board that throughout the past several days have erupted in explosive fireballs.

Car fires are tough to fight, according to McManus, conjuring up the frequent sight of a vehicle burning alongside the New Jersey Turnpike, often with smoke pouring from the engine compartment.

“Now put that in your garage,” he said.

The Grande Costa d’Avorio was a massive sea-going garage with at least 12 decks. Known as a RORO vessel (for roll-on-roll off), the ship was designed like a ferry to carry wheeled cargo such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses. Vehicles are driven under their own power up ramps within the ship, which is configured like a giant parking deck, and then secured to the decks for transport.

Grimaldi Deep Sea, the Italian operator of the ship, said a loading operation was underway when the fire started on Deck 10. “The crew of the vessel immediately activated the on-board fire suppression procedures while the local firefighting service were alerted,” the Naples-based company said in a statement.

McManus said vessels loaded onto a RORO ship typically have just a small amount of gasoline in their fuel tanks — just enough to drive on and off. When underway, all of the ship’s compartments, hatches and watertight doors are sealed, helping contain any possible fires at sea. They are also equipped with fire suppression systems.

Cars aboard the ship were fueling that blaze that continued to burn.Jeff Rhode | For NJ Advance Medi

“You don’t have the staffing at sea to combat a long-term fire,” he explained. “You contain it and cool it.”

In port, however, all those fire barriers are open in order to move cargo. And that meant there was little to stop the fire’s spread on Wednesday night.

State Fire Marshal Richard Mikutsky, who directs the state Division of Fire Safety, called marine firefighting “unarguably one of the most challenging” of all firefighter disciplines.

“Large commercial vessels have been compared to that of a high-rise building laying on its side, with most of its structure being in the basement levels,” he said. “A container vessel may have an internal depth of as many as seven stories, with access through an entry point in the hull below the uppermost decks, near the water level. That alone gives great concern to first responders.”

Above the access, there can be levels consisting of up to eight decks.

“Together, these decks make a structure equivalent to a building with nine aboveground and six below-grade stories,” he said. “As with buildings, commercial ships vary in design, materials and general layout, further complicating the fire attack.”

Training is always key, said McManus, whose job is to train cadets seeking a career at sea.

“But how do you train for the 1 in a 1,000 situation?” he said of fire departments like Newark, which has not seen a major fire within the port in at least 40 years, according to industry officials. “It’s a different world for them.”

Shipboard fires at ports are exceptionally rare, said Shawn Balcomb, a spokesman for the Washington-based American Association of Port Authorities.

“Most port authorities do not have dedicated fire departments, but instead work closely with local authorities and coast guard offices to train and prepare for emergencies,” he said.

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, adjacent to one another on Southern California’s San Pedro Bay, are the biggest ports in the country, but neither have fire departments of their own.

”We don’t have our own force, but we pay for and work closely with LA Fire,” said Phillip Sanfield, a Port of Los Angeles spokesperson. Lee Peterson, a Port of Long Beach spokesperson, said, the Long Beach Fire Department has several stations in the Port of Long Beach including two fire boat stations.

The Fire Department of New York, which has specialized rescue and marine response units and multiple fireboats — which continue to pour water on the cargo ship in Port Newark — trains repeatedly for shipboard disasters. That training includes a ship fire simulator on Randall’s Island.

Still, Gordon Lorenson of Donjon Marine, a salvage company assisting with the fire, said shipboard fires are unique from one event to the next and can change.

“You can do all the training in the world and you’re going to find something you’ve never seen before,” he said.

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Staff writers Jackie Roman and Steve Strunsky contributed to this report.

Ted Sherman may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL.

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