Florida firefighter rebuked for leaving department shirt at sofa store memorial

David Garofalo was one of thousands of firefighters who journeyed to Charleston last month to honor his fallen colleagues.

When the captain with Pasco County (Fla.) Fire Rescue went to the Sofa Super Store site, he wanted to leave something behind. So he left one of his county-issued polo shirts on a makeshift shrine.

But that spontaneous gesture earned him a written, verbal caution for giving away county property, even though he said he tried to reimburse his employer.

"It's sad that it went this far," Garofalo said. "I want it behind me, and I don't want the department I work for to look bad. I just want (the situation) to be over."

Garofalo and Pasco County government officials said they felt embarrassed because a relatively minor issue got blown out of proportion. They agreed, however, that Garofalo should have notified a

supervisor about the shirt sooner. An editorial in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times pondered the kind of unflattering image of Pasco County the dust-up might have left in Charleston.

Firefighters from as many as 800 departments in the United States and Canada attended the memorial service four days after nine firefighters died in the June 18 furniture store blaze. Garofalo piled into an SUV with two Tampa firefighters about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, June 21. They arrived about 4:45 a.m. Friday, hours before the memorial. Pasco County is just north of Tampa.

Garofalo had to work Sunday, so the group left for home after attending the service, but not before stopping by the ruins of the Sofa Super Store.

He looked at the tokens of sadness and gratitude: flowers, shirts and hand-drawn cards from children.

"People were taking badges off their shirt," he said. "Someone left their helmet."

He hadn't brought anything specific. He looked in his duffle bag and found something: an official polo shirt for Pasco County Fire Rescue. He thought he could spare one and figure out the details on return.

"It was something I was drawn to do," Garofalo said. "Being on the scene was very emotional."

After arriving home in North Port, Fla., that Saturday night, he didn't inform his bosses about the shirt. The next week, a supervisor asked him about it. Garofalo is unsure how his boss found out. But when he said it was his, the department launched a fact-finding mission. That ended with a verbal caution that will stay in his file a year, and likely be reflected in his annual evaluation.

Meanwhile, Garofalo called the vendor to order two new shirts. Design Lab Inc. of Greenville waived the payment and told him to donate the money to the families of the fallen firefighters, the company confirmed.

He called the Charleston Fire Department to ask if it could send back the original shirt. To his surprise, the shirt was returned. The department's secretary, Pam Blevins, mailed it last week and Garofalo received it Friday.

"He was caught up in the moment like anyone else would be," Blevins said.

Garofalo now plans to deliver a shirt, perhaps in person, when he takes a family vacation next month.

"I was talking to a department that just lost nine firefighters and I was asking for a $23 shirt back," he said. "Everyone I met was so wonderful. I wanted to say sorry that it was even brought up."

A spokesman for Pasco County said the chain of command might have been followed better, but conceded that anybody in Garofalo's position would have done the same thing. Still, policy remains the same for any county property, from a box of pencils on up.

"We're embarrassed about the situation because it got out of hand," spokesman Eric Keaton said. "We certainly respect the firemen's creed, their brotherhood."

Garofalo said he would leave the shirt again if he were in the same position, but let his department know sooner.

"I love my job, and I love my department. I just think they went a little too far."