Anticipation of Thursday's furniture store fire report high among firefighters, families
A preliminary federal report has provided fresh details about the chain of events at the fatal Sofa Super Store fire. But another report coming this week is expected to provide greater context and insight into how those events led to the deaths of nine Charleston firefighters.
The report, due Thursday, should present a comprehensive time line and analysis of the tragedy, detailing the actions of firefighters amid the chaos at the sprawling furniture outlet on June 18.
The city consultants' report will likely address many issues spotlighted in a recently released draft review from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. But the city panel's report is expected to go deeper, and link actions with results.
Mayor Joe Riley has acknowledged that the Fire Department made mistakes that night, but he has also stressed that the fire was a rapid-moving blaze that left firefighters with little time to react. Others, however, remain convinced that the tragedy was avoidable had things been handled differently that night.
Janet Wilmoth, editorial director for Fire Chief magazine, has known the six-member city panel for years and expects that the group will deliver an honest report that pulls no punches.
"I think they are going to tell the story like it is, and it is not going to be pleasant," she said. "Those nine firefighters should not have died, and we are lucky they didn't lose more."
Firefighters and families of the fallen await the report with a mix of anticipation and dread, knowing raw emotions will accompany the answers they seek.
Read the full story in Sunday's Post and Courier.
Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com. Reach Ron Menchaca at 937-5724 or rmenchaca@postandcourier.com.
E-mail this story 
Printer-friendly version
Notice about comments:
The Post and Courier is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. The Post and Courier does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not postandcourier.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "suggest removal" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our Web site.
Full terms and conditions can be read here.
Comments
This article has 1 comment(s)
Posted by east3 on May 11, 2008 at 12:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Janet Willmot is not a person with an axe to grind or a union official, but a journalist representing the views of fire chiefs from across the country. Note the words she used – the nine “should not have died.” Their deaths were preventable.
The cause of death of those nine men was not a discarded cigarette or a faulty fire door or the lack of sprinklers. They were the victims of years of negligence and disregard for the well-being of Charleston’s firefighters by the Fire Chief and the Mayor who appointed him and is now protecting him from accountability.
They knowingly disregarded repeated efforts to move the city and department forward in step with national professional standards. In 2002, the union urged compliance with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, including adequate staffing, larger initial fire responses and adoption of the incident command system, warning that not to do so “increases the risk of firefighter injury.”
In 2005, the governor of South Carolina issued an executive order which adopted the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as “South Carolina’s standard” and encouraged all local jurisdictions within the state to adopt it.
Both the union and the Governor were ignored by the Mayor and the Chief. After the fire, they defended their reliance on “tradition” and repeated their disregard for professional standards. According to the P&C, “Charleston Fire Chief Rusty Thomas said … that he does not know whether his department's policies mirror federal and state guidelines for managing a fire scene.” He said, “We have our own incident command system…I don't care how it is anyplace else."
These actions are the definition of professional negligence and their words are public confessions. They did not care what the standards were, and even after nine men had died, swore they would never change their ways.
Not only was there no recognizable command system, every aspect of the operation was substandard. The response was too small, the crews understaffed, the apparatus poorly equipped, the hoses and nozzles obsolete, the water supply procedures inadequate and outdated by decades, the scene disorganized, the radio system misused, the tactics fatally incompetent, the engineers poorly trained, the commanders ignorant of tactics and hydraulics. Only the guts of the firefighters were above and beyond. They were betrayed by an ignorant and negligent leadership that allowed them to go to their deaths wrongly.
The Mayor wants to claim that no fire department could have controlled this fire. First, he is probably wrong. Had all those factors above been up to standard, it is very possible that a strong and well-supplied attack on the loading dock fire could have knocked it down and possibly limited its spread.
But more importantly, if he really believes that, then how does he excuse his Chief leaving his firefighters to die inside a fire that no fire department could control?