Firefighters killed battling cargo ship fire posthumously promoted

Two Newark firefighters fatally injured while battling a massive fire aboard a cargo ship docked in New Jersey earlier this month were posthumously promoted to captain during their funeral service last week.

Hundreds of mourners, including dozens of uniformed firefighters and law enforcement officers, came to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark last Thursday 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,"

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.

The next day, also at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, hundreds attended services for Brooks, 49, who was a Newark firefighter for 16 years. Brooks, too, was remembered as a dedicated firefighter and a big personality who was always smiling.

“(Firefighters) don’t have the luxury of staying home, turning around and changing their mind,” Baraka said in his eulogy. "There are men and women who put on the uniform every day and put their lives on the line for us and we don’t even say thank you. We thank you for your service.”