The blaze that killed two firefighters aboard an Italian cargo ship at Port Newark, N.J., last week has finally been extinguished, officials said on Tuesday.
More than five days after the fire erupted on the 10th deck of the Grande Costa d’Avorio, a marine chemist determined that there was no longer any danger that it would flare up again, officials said.
“We can officially declare the fire is out,” said Capt. Zeita Merchant, commander of the Coast Guard’s New York sector. The operation has turned into a salvage effort that will take one to two months to complete, Capt. Merchant said at a news conference beside the ship.
While private contractors draw up a salvage plan, an investigation into the cause of the fire and why it was so difficult to extinguish will continue, Captain Merchant said. “We don’t know right now where the vessel is going,” she said, but it will likely have to be towed away from its berth in the port.
Firefighters and other responders had been working to suppress the fire since Wednesday night, pumping water from Newark Bay onto the towering ship and its load of 1,200 vehicles. The persistence of the fire led to speculation that some of the cars on board were electric vehicles with lithium ion batteries.
But Beth Rooney, the port director, said that the ship’s manifest indicated that there were no electric vehicles on it. She said that the ship had carried new electric vehicles to Baltimore before arriving in Newark, where it took on a load of “previously owned vehicles” bound for West Africa. It was due to sail on to Providence, R.I., for more used cars after leaving Newark, she said.
Ms. Rooney said that there were “no known water quality issues” or other significant environmental effects as a result of the fire or the efforts to put it out. There were no noticeable odors on the dock on Tuesday morning.
The port, one of the busiest in the nation, resumed normal operations on Monday. Officials had been concerned that the efforts to put out the fire might have caused the ship to capsize, but it remained afloat.
The fire erupted just before 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on the ship’s 10th deck and spread quickly to two upper decks. Two Newark firefighters, Augusto Acabou, 45, and Wayne Brooks Jr., 49, died trying to knock the blaze down. Funeral services for the men will be this week at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.