Charleston 9 memorial plan

The vacant site of the Sofa Super Store, where nine Charleston firefighters died fighting a blaze in 2007, would be redeveloped as a memorial, a training and educational facility, and a new Fire Department headquarters, under a plan recommended to City Council Tuesday.

The conceptual plan, with no price tag attached, was laid out by some of the 28 members of a commission formed by the city nine months ago to memorialize what was one of the nation's worst losses of firefighter lives in decades.

Mayor Joe Riley said he's certain people will agree that "what the commission has put together could not be more appropriate for this hallowed site."

The city previously borrowed nearly $1.9 million to buy the 2.5-acre site at 1807 Savannah Highway, and has set aside $90,000 to pay for design plans, but there's no funding in place for the memorial itself.

The commission's recommendation calls for a garden-like outdoor memorial with individual markers for each of the fallen firefighters. A design plan for the memorial shows the individual markers positioned in the roughly same locations where the firefighters' bodies were found in the ruins of the Sofa Super Store.

At the center of the memorial there would be a main element, possibly a Maltese cross, which is the emblem of the fire service.

A large new building would surround the memorial garden on three sides, blocking out the noise of Savannah Highway traffic and the views of the used car dealership and a gas station on either side of the property.

The building would be 25,000 to 32,000 square feet, with space for firefighter training, public education programs, and a new headquarters for the Charleston Fire Department.