funeral services for two Newark firefighters killed responding to a ship fire Last Week begin tonight with the viewing of firefighter Augusta Acabou Governor Phil Murphy is expected to attend tonight's service Acabou's funeral is set for tomorrow morning the funeral for firefighter Wayne Brooks Jr is scheduled for Friday in the non-profit group tunnels to Towers announced today it'll pay the mortgage on Brooks's home and provide financial help to the Acabou family meanwhile the Coast Guard said it's standing down the response command now that the fire is officially extinguished on the ship the badly damaged boat will be scrapped in the coming months with a full investigation into the fire set to begin now Newark firefighter union leaders say the deadly incident is Shining Light on neglect the department has endured for years senior political correspondent David Cruz reports we're the one that has to have come to work with one less brother on a fire truck a second less brother sitting in the chair eating dinner with us the two firefighters who died battling the Newark Port Blaze goes to akabu and Wayne Brooks will be laid to rest this week honored by the governor and the mayor and mourned by their families and their peers but even as this process unfolds those involved in the day-to-day of fighting fires in the city are using the attention of the tragedies to raise the alarm about what they say is a department in a near crisis from Staffing to training to equipment Anthony Tarantino is president of the fire officers Union let's just start with the repairs of vehicles you have a car breaks down every once in a while you go get your oil changed our mechanic shop uh for fire apparatus is made up of one maybe two and at best three guys on a sporadic basis any Main records that are kept I can't call down to the shop right now and find out when the last time 28 engine got an oil change uh it just doesn't exist that's just one of the issues brought up by the Union at a press conference this week they say their division is woefully understaffed to fight fires in the city limits let alone at one of the largest ports in the world this morning mayor rasparaka reacted angrily to the union statements I think it's inappropriate and it's wrong for us to have this thing back and forth before we put those boys in the ground when we put those boys in the ground then we're going to have a press conference and talk about all of this stuff I'm sorry the mayor's feelings are hard but we lost two brothers that day I'm I'm I'm not really concerning of his feelings right now the city sent out a fact sheet this week saying it's budgeted for 485 firefighters and that it's brought on 186 firefighters since it created the Department of Public Safety in 2016. so the fact sheet that they put out according to their facts uh says that they hired 186 guys since the public safety department uh was formed but they're not taken to account that uh 70 retired there may be 435 people that are on the payroll but there's only 397 that are actually putting out fires but but the tragedy here definitely puts a spotlight on on the fire Division and and whether or not um you know the the cities uh been able to provide them with the appropriate resources that they need a question as to whether or not a local municipal fire department or division should be fighting fires in an area like Port North that question has come up several times in the aftermath of the fire how would that work who would stand it up and who would manage it Newark the Port Authority some other agency the PA says everything has to be considered the governor was asked about it yesterday for consideration it seems to me I mean someone reminded me that way back when airports didn't have their own dedicated fire force under the theory that they didn't have fires happening that frequently but the fact of the matter is it is a very specific expectation when the fires do happen they're substantial tragedies can serve to unify but they can also expose divisions and while both the administration and the union say their goal is protection and service of a city of 300 000 they cement odds over the best way to do that David Cruz NJ Spotlight News [Music]