NYC NOW - November 14, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Police are investigating an apparent triple stabbing after three people were found dead this morning in Saint Albans, Queens. Meanwhile, Democrats are challenging New York’s congressional map in the state’s top court, with a hearing set for Wednesday. Also, the Essex County Holiday Lights Spectacular is scheduled to start November 17th at Turtle Back Zoo, West Orange, New Jersey. Finally, a NJ Advance Media three-part investigation, featuring newly-released radio transmissions and reports, delves into the major Port Newark cargo ship fire that killed two firefighters over four months ago; WNYC’s Michael Hill is joined by investigative reporter for NJ Advance Media Ted Sherman to discuss the series.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, November 14th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Police are investigating an apparent triple stabbing after three people were found dead this morning inside a Queen's home. Police say they found one man and two women with multiple stab wounds at a house on Millburn Street in St. Albans at around 7. 15. Police say a person of interest is in custody, but aren't describing that person's relationship to the three victims. Democrats were asking New York's top court to toss the state's congressional map.

The Court of Appeals will hear the case tomorrow afternoon. Republicans say the Democrats supported lawsuit as a power grab. The Republican Party picked up three seats in New York last year when a court-appointed mapmaker put the current congressional districts in place. Democrats such as Governor Kathy Hoke will say that's wrong. They claim the independent state panel should get another crack at drawing the lines after deadlocked last year. They can become more favorable for one party, they can be less favorable. I will not weigh in on that. But I'm going to always make sure that the process is properly filed here in the state of New York.

Both parties hope the court rules soon since candidates already are campaigning for 2024. The annual and free Essex County Holiday Lights spectacular. begins this Friday at the Turtleback Zoo in West Orange. Expect plenty of animal-shaped light displays. The display is open 5 to 9 Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings through December 3rd and then daily from December 8th until New Year's Eve. 53 with sunshine now, sunny and 53 for a high on the gusty side today. Tomorrow, mostly sunny and 52.

Tomorrow, actually Thursday, sunny and near 60. It's been more than four months since a major fire burned a cargo ship at Port Newark and a dramatic blaze that killed two firefighters. Now a three-part investigation by NJ. Advanced Media explores newly released radio transmissions and incident reports to shed light on what happened that summer night. Joining us now to talk about it is investigative reporter for NJ. Advanced Media, Ted Sherman. Ted, first you say, responders describe the fire as somewhat routine. fire commanders even determined they did not need backup when asked, when did things go wrong? Things went wrong actually pretty quickly. When they first got there, all they saw was some light smoke, and I think there were about two cars on the top of the ship. The ship's crew had already

started fighting the fire. It was not all that major a fire. The fire department took over the ship's own hoses and extinguished the fires that were burning in the cars. Soon afterwards, though, they started seeing smoke coming up from below deck, and they made a decision to go deeper into the ship to figure out, in their words, what we have here. Now, part one of your investigation shares radio transmission from the moment commanders realized firefighters, Augusto Acoe Acoe, and Wayne Brooks, Jr. you're missing. Here's a clip of that moment. You're not finding a way out. We're a little.

Deputy, did you just hear Injus 16's last transmission? Negative. Don't need a way of it. Be advised. It sounded like he said to me that he cannot find his way back out. No, no, no. Or units, evacuate yourself. Or units, evacuate yourself. The emergency evacuation?

Ted, what was going on inside the ship, then, to make these firefighters lose their way? What was happening in there was it's dark, The smoke is increasing. They can't see where they're going. They're using a thermal imaging camera, which is basically a camera that shows heat, but they can't see very well. And the only way they could find their way out once they go in is to follow the hose that they're using. If you need to get out in a hurry, that's your breadcrumb trail out the door.

Ted, I want to ask you about specifics here. Part one, you report that they were so unprepared to deal with his fire. How so? Well, they had no training. They had no orientation in marine firefighting techniques. Right after the fire, the city said that they were trained. They had a training just a few months earlier in how to deal with electric car fires. when we pressed them on that and when we got some public records on that issue as well,

this was not a shipboard orientation. It was a exercise in a classroom, and it wasn't really specific to marine fires. It was electric car fires, which are notoriously hard to put out. They hadn't had actual shipboard training in nearly a decade. Ted, part two of your report goes into the rescue mission for these two firefighters. Paint that picture for us, please. Sure. Once they got the call from inside the ship, they immediately issued an evacuation order.

They ordered all the firefighters off the ship, and they began sending small teams of firefighters into the ship to search for the men that were still missing. But it's a very, very large compartment. It's filled with hundreds upon hundreds of cars being exported to West Africa. Many of them are old. They're damaged. Some of them had been burning. And they're all lashed to the deck very, very tightly.

It's almost impossible to make your way through some of these rows and rows of cars. And then start searching in the compartment. and hope that both of the firefighters have their, basically panic alarms on them, it will start sending out these chirps and beeps that let rescuers know there's a firefighter there. And that's what they did for quite some time. The official cause of the fire is still being investigated, as you say, by the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as by state, local, and some federal agencies.

It could take some time before we know the findings of these before they made public. What are questions you still are asking at this point, Ted? Well, there are a lot of unanswered questions, even about who is investigating and why. But one of the things I'm curious about is that the Essex County Prosecutor's Office is also investigating. They always investigate suspicious deaths, but the fact that they are continuing to investigate suggests to me that they might be wondering whether there was some sort of culpability here on somebody's part. And your third report, you found that there have been five fires involving boats,

transporting these specific kinds of cars in the past few years. So were there warning signs before the July 5th ship fire? Absolutely. the NTSB and their report of a similar ship fire that actually was aboard a ship that had been chartered by the owner of the ship that burned in Port Newark. They warned that the export of these previously owned, used, sometimes junk cars were an elevated fire hazard. On top of all of that, the NTSB also noted that ships that are specifically designed for carrying wheeled cargo like this one are exempt from hazardous materials regulations. And they recommended something to be done about that. And to this date, nothing has been done about that.

Ted Sherman is an investigative reporter for NJ. Advanced Media looking at the Port Norc Fire that killed two Norke Firefighters. this summer. Ted, thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.