9 Firefighters Perish in Warehouse Blaze

Jun 19, 11:00 PM

Current Headlines: CHARLESTON, S.C. _ The close-knit firehouses of Charleston lost a meticulous leader, a coach to young athletes, an unofficial barber and a few light-hearted pranksters among nine firefighters who perished in the deadliest day for the profession in the U.S. since the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I lost nine of my best friends," said Charleston Fire Chief Rusty Thomas, choking back tears Tuesday. "To the families, you gave them to us, and we protected them as best as we could."

Mayor Joseph Riley said the dead firefighters, who among them had more than 130 years of experience with the Charleston Fire Department, gave "the last full measure of devotion" to the community.

The cause of Monday night's blaze at a massive one-story furniture warehouse was still under investigation, although officials said earlier in the day they did not believe arson was involved. The building had no sprinkler system. Furniture stacked on shelves provided the kindling, and the roof collapsed within 30 minutes of the firefighters' arrival.

Carol Harken of Charleston, a customer service representative for a cable company, watched the fire from across the street. "It was an inferno. That fire went so fast those guys didn't have a chance," Harken said. "It looked like the building melted."

Tuesday was a day of shock and mourning, particularly among firefighters who work and live together during 24-hour shifts, sharing meals and sleeping in cramped bunkrooms.

Firefighter Bryan Bolick, 28, had swapped shifts with Brandon Thompson, one of the firefighters who perished, so that he could play in a charity golf tournament Monday night.

"He was a go-getter, a very aggressive fireman. He was like a brother to me," Bolick said, sitting on the porch of a loan office across the street from the site of the fire.

Three of the dead firefighters worked in Bolick's firehouse. "This is devastating for us as a family," Bolick added. "Half of that station is going to be empty."

Five of the dead had been stationed at the Ashley Hall Plantation Road Firehouse. Capt. William "Billy" Hutchinson, 48, had served as unofficial barber to the fire department and their family members.

A former professional barber, he would bring his clippers and scissors to work and pull a kitchen chair into one of the station's bathrooms. Everyone from battalion chiefs to firefighters' children would come by for $3 haircuts, said Capt. Gary Taylor.

"A lot of time Billy didn't even charge. He'd say, `Take care of me next time,'" Taylor said.

Bradford "Brad" Baity, 37, a former Marine who worked in the same firehouse, was known as a quiet, gentle man who frequently spent his free time working away on his laptop and was legendary for his thrift with money, colleagues said. He doubled as treasurer for the firefighters union.

James "Earl" Drayton, 56, a 32-year veteran firefighter, "loved the fire department," Taylor said. He was always willing to pull duty for a colleague and habitually reported for work at 6 a.m. or earlier for a shift that did not start until 8 a.m.

"The last thing I remember him talking about was taking his grandkids fishing. He did that a lot," said firefighter Laval Green, 35.

Of Capt. Louis Mulkey, Bolick recalled that Mulkey helped coach football at Summerville High School.

"Louis Mulkey definitely went the extra mile with a lot of things. Everything he did, he made sure he did it right. Every job we did, he'd stay there the longest, he would make sure everything got done," Bolick said.

Mayor Riley spoke for many here and across the country when he told a morning news conference: "Nine brave, heroic, courageous firefighters of the city of Charleston have perished fighting fire in a most courageous and fearless manner, carrying on their duties."

On Tuesday, the store lay in charred ruins. Much of the building's facade had peeled away. Scorched metal and cinder blocks were exposed on a collapsed section of the front wall. The roof had collapsed behind it. An uneven, jagged row of corrugated metal stood in the rear of the store, which was located along a busy highway.

On a grass strip in front of the parking lot, nine crosses stood, each fashioned from white metal pipe and with an American flag planted beside it. Passers-by left flowers, balloons, and more flags behind them. It was the worst loss of life on a single day for American firefighters since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

And questions mounted as to what went wrong inside the Sofa Super Store and warehouse. Thomas told reporters that he "would not comment on the sequence of events." Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten said they did not want to "mis-serve their (firefighters') families by jumping to conclusions."

At least 16 firefighters were in the warehouse during the 30 minutes before the roof collapsed and killed nine of them. Several survivors were seen crawling out of windows to safety, witnesses said.

Thomas said that someone had reported people trapped in the building in a 911 call. Witnesses described seeing one civilian escape the fire and firefighters assist another out of the building.

Investigators will likely examine the structure of the building to determine the strength of the roof supports and how long those supports could have withstood the extreme heat from a fire before giving way.

Atlanta Fire Chief Harold Miller said in an interview on CNN that the kindling-like nature of furniture stacked on shelves created the potential of a "tremendous amount of heat." A steel truss roof _ one that is not supported by pillars mounted into the floor of the building _ would be more vulnerable to an early collapse, Miller said.

"I don't know that that one had a steel truss roof, but it appeared that it possibly could have, then early collapse is a very distinct possibility," Miller said.

Larry Langford, director of media affairs for the Chicago Fire Department, said he would not second-guess how the Charleston department handled the fire. Langford said, though, that roof design is a critically important factor in determining how Chicago firefighters battle blazes.

"If it is a truss roof, then you make an entry early, but if it's any kind of a fire, they'll get out fast," he said. "You don't have much time."

"Building with large open expanses leads to a situation where the roof will fail," Langford said.

Thomas said his firefighters were prepared to deal with the fire at the furniture warehouse. "They were doing what they were trained to do," Thomas said.

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FALLEN FIREFIGHTERS

The Charleston County Coroner's office released the ranks, names, ages and years of service of the nine men killed:

_Capt. William "Billy" Hutchinson, 48, 30 years of service.

_Capt. Mike Benke, 49, 29 years.

_Capt. Louis Mulkey, 34, 11{ years.

_Engineer Mark Kelsey, 40, 12{ years.

_Engineer Bradford "Brad" Baity, 37, 9 years.

_Assistant Engineer Michael French, 27, 18 months.

_Firefighter James "Earl" Drayton, 56, 32 years.

_Firefighter Brandon Thompson, 27, 4 years.

_Firefighter Melvin Champaign, 46, 2 years.

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(Dorning reported from Charleston with Jones in Chicago.)

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