NEWARK, N.J., (AP) — A firefighter who was fatally injured along with a colleague while battling a massive fire aboard a cargo ship docked in New Jersey last week was posthumously promoted to captain during his funeral service on Thursday.
Hundreds of mourners, including dozens of uniformed firefighters and law enforcement officers, came to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark to honor Augusto “Augie” Acabou, 45, a Newark native who had been a city firefighter for nine years. He was recalled as a dedicated public servant who was always trying to make his friends and colleagues laugh.
“Our city mourns grievously for one of our heroes — a Newark boy that made his way here with a proud and close-knit family and found a noble and honorable profession,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka told the mourners. “We close our eyes and bow our heads collectively as one city, knowing that this man that we lay to rest here today was one of the very best amongst us,”
Fire crews continue to battle a blaze in a cargo ship docked at the East Coast’s biggest port, days after the blaze claimed the lives of two New Jersey firefighters and injured five others.
A cargo ship burned for a third day and will likely smolder for several more days at a New Jersey port after two firefighters died in the blaze.
A New Jersey fire chief says two firefighters were killed and five others injured battling a blaze inside a docked cargo ship carrying more than a thousand vehicles.
Air travel is getting a bit easier, thanks to a break in storms that have pummeled the East Coast. The number of canceled and delayed flights on Monday was running well below Sunday’s rate.
Acabou and another Newark firefighter, Wayne “Bear” Brooks Jr., 49, both died while fighting the July 5 fire aboard the Grande Costa d’Avorio, an Italian-flagged vessel carrying thousands of vehicles and other goods that was docked at Port Newark. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
A funeral service for Brooks will be held Friday.
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