Nearly two years ago, two firefighters were killed in the Port Newark cargo ship fire. On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board shared more details about what led to that fire during a public meeting in Washington. The fatal fire, which happened in July 2023, took the lives of firefighters Wayne Brooks and Augusto Acabou, whose families and colleagues were present during the discussion. According to Bart Barnum, investigator in charge of the NTSB's Marine Safety Unit "The primary cause of death for the two fatally injured firefighters was smoke inhalation, including carbon monoxide intoxication." He shared that the fire ignited after cargo loaders improperly used a Jeep Wrangler to push 37 vehicles into position. Investigators say the jeeps tow capacity around 2000 pounds but it was pushing between 3600 to 6000 pounds. They say the jeep also had transmission issues and that transmission fluid boiled over and ignited within the engine, causing a raging fire, one the NTSB says the vessel crew was not prepared for. "In this particular casualty, we found that the shoreside employees, the Ports America, the American Maritime Services, they did not have a plan in place for their employees," said Barnum. Barnum says responding firefighters weren't prepared either. "I assumed that a port the size of Newark, part of the third largest port in the united states would have a firefighting response that was robust in marine firefighting training." He said there was a CO2 system on the ship which would have suppressed the fire if the deck doors were closed, and efforts could have been focusing on closing the doors or containing the fire or even fighting from the outside. It would have taken longer but firefighters wouldn't have gone in. "Worst case scenario, they would have done all those things, they wouldn't have been able to get the door shut, it would have remained open, it would have still taken five days to extinguish the fire, but no one would have went into the space and no one would have died." The board shared that leaders with the Newark Fire Department had a hard time communicating and signals were spotty among firefighters. "It just sounds like there was a total lack of communication on the whole shore base response," said NTSB Member, Michael Graham. The NTSB says they plan to implement new safety recommendations based on their findings to ensure first responders are supported and that this doesn't happen again.