Wednesday 16 April 2025 · below the Index · spike
Newark cargo ship fire caused by vehicle malfunction
The NTSB determined that a fire aboard a cargo ship in Newark was caused by a Jeep dripping flammable material while being loaded onto the vessel. The investigation found failures in training procedures prior to the deadly incident.
Peak 49.3 on Wednesday 16 April 2025. The shaded band is the incident window.
Where the attention came from
Public curiosity-led, both over the window and on the peak day.
Bar = share of the extra attention over the whole window; the tick marks the share on the peak day alone, where the two differ.
How unusual it was
This was above 21% of all days since 2020, and the highest since Friday 11 April 2025.
How far it spread
No vessel type moved — 0 of 6 vessel-type groups drew clearly more readers than usual.
Bars start at 1× — normal readership for that vessel type, the weeks before the incident. Grey = no clear lift. "Over time" shows each group's daily readers through the window; "All 12 articles" breaks the six groups back into their members.
How it was framed the frame glossary →
Lead frame: safety failure. Trade press was 0% of in-scope coverage — the story had left the trade press and gone mainstream. (Historical coverage is scored on headlines only.)
Acting, or acted upon
In 4% of coverage shipping was the thing acted upon rather than the actor; 50% of it was strongly negative in tone.
What the coverage said
- Newark cargo ship fire: NTSB reveals what caused 2023 blaze that killed 2 firefightersabc7ny.com · 2025-04-15
- NTSB finds 'failure' in training before deadly Newark cargo ship firewokv.com · 2025-04-15
- NTSB finds 'failure' in training before Newark cargo ship firenj1015.com · 2025-04-15
- NTSB cites 'failure of leadership' in deadly Newark cargo ship fire – NBC New Yorknbcnewyork.com · 2025-04-16
- Cargo ship was ignited by a Jeep dripping 'fireballs' while pushing vehicles on board, NTSB findsyahoo.com · 2025-04-15
Gold rule = a national or international outlet, not a trade title.
- tier C: only a Wikipedia article, GDELT sub-vocabulary term, or social per-term query fired — not yet confirmed as a real maritime incident (Phase C naming/is_maritime_incident does that).
- coverage scored on title only (no excerpt) — measured ~8pp frame precision cost vs title+excerpt (docs/HANDOVER-incidents.md §2.3)
- coverage filtered to articles matching this incident specifically (28/147 kept) — see coverage.filter.terms
- coverage panel is based on only 28 articles (< 30) — directional, not precise
Maritime Attention Index, incident: Newark cargo ship fire caused by vehicle malfunction, peak 49.3 on 16 April 2025. maritimeattentionindex.com/incidents/2025-newark-cargo-ship-fire-caused-by-vehicle-malfunction/