Ship Catches Fire at Port Newark in New Jersey

A ship caught fire while docked at Port Newark in New Jersey on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

The spokeswoman, Lenis Valens, said by phone early Thursday that Port Authority police officers had responded after 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday to a fire on a ship that was docked at the port.

Ms. Valens said she had no other details, including the status of the fire.

Several units from the New York Fire Department responded after midnight and operations were “ongoing” as of around 3 a.m., the department said in a brief email.

Representatives for the Newark Department of Public Safety, the Newark Fire Division and the United States Coast Guard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Port Newark Container Terminal, as the port is officially called, is 272 acres, or about a third the size of Central Park in Manhattan. In January 2022, a fire at a scrap metal recycling facility there produced smoke that wafted through Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The ports in New Jersey and neighboring New York State are owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

As of last year, the Port of New York and New Jersey was the second largest container port by cargo volume in the United States — just behind the Port of Los Angeles and slightly ahead of the Port of Long Beach, also in California, according to Port Authority figures.

Of the $271 billion worth of goods that moved through Port of New York and New Jersey in 2022, furniture was the top commodity import; vehicles and their parts were the top export.

This is a developing story.

Source: The New York Times