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156 pages

English

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Last Alarm is the heart-wrenching story of how nine brave firefighters died battling the 2007 Sofa Super Store fire in Charleston, South Carolina.

Last Alarm: The Charleston 9 is the heart-wrenching story of how nine brave firefighters died battling the 2007 Sofa Super Store fire in Charleston, South Carolina. Life-endangering conditions combined together to create a ‘perfect firestorm’ ---a fuel-ladened furniture store that was a time bomb and death trap, and a fire department at the time that was understaffed, ill-equipped, and far below national fire service standards.

The author, Thomas A. Woodley, a labor litigation lawyer who represented many firefighters and emergency medical workers for over forty years, provides a factbased account of the multiple alarm response to the biggest structure fire in Charleston in 150 years.

Thorough investigations and well documented reports issued by federal agencies and a review team of outside experts, plus firefighter interviews and media articles, enabled the author to accumulate a wealth of material to shed insights on one of the deadliest fires in recent memory.

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Charleston Sofa Super Store fire

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Publié par	iUniverse
Date de parution	08 décembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781663243867
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

LAST ALARM

THE CHARLESTON 9

THOMAS A. WOODLEY

LAST ALARM THE CHARLESTON 9

Copyright © 2022 Thomas A. Woodley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4388-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4389-8 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4386-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022914986

iUniverse rev. date: 05/02/2023
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments and Disclosures
Prelude

Chapter 1 The Alarm Sounds
Chapter 2 The Charleston Firefighters Respond
Chapter 3 Engine 10 Attacks the Fire in the Loading Dock
Chapter 4 The Ladder 5 Crew Joins the Fight
Chapter 5 The Fire-Generating and Life-Threatening Conditions at the Store
Chapter 6 The Engine 16 Crew Provides Reinforcements
Chapter 7 The Firefighters Struggle without Water
Chapter 8 Engine 12 is Summoned for More Support
Chapter 9 Fire Chief Rusty Thomas Rushes to the Scene
Chapter 10 The Engine 15 Crew Bolsters the Firefighters inside the Store
Chapter 11 Engine 6 Speeds to the Fire
Chapter 12 The Engine 19 Crew Arrives on Scene and Enters the Main Showroom
Chapter 13 The St. Andrews Fire Department Furnishes Mutual Aid
Chapter 14 A Store Employee Is Trapped inside the Burning Workshop
Chapter 15 The Firefighters inside the Store Run Out of Air and Become Disoriented
Chapter 16 Firefighters Are Down and Radio for Help
Chapter 17 CFD Firefighters Search for Their Missing Brothers
Chapter 18 Family Members Rush to the Fire Scene
Chapter 19 The CFD Firefighters Recover Their Fallen Brothers
Chapter 20 The Charleston 9
Chapter 21 The CFD Firefighters Return to Station Duty
Chapter 22 Remembering the Fallen
Chapter 23 The Community’s Memorial Service
Chapter 24 The Funerals for the Nine Fallen Firefighters
Chapter 25 Firefighters and Their Union Representatives Express Concerns about the CFD
Chapter 26 The Federal National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Initiates Its Investigation
Chapter 27 The City Appoints an Investigative Team of Experts to Examine the SSS Fire
Chapter 28 South Carolina OSHA Investigates and Finds Major Violations of State Safety Laws
Chapter 29 The Review Team of Experts Issues Its Phase I Report on the SSS Fire and the Charleston Fire Department
Chapter 30 The Investigative Review Team of Experts Issues Its Final Phase II Report on the SSS Fire
Chapter 31 The Concurring Report of the Federal National Institute of Standards and Technology
Chapter 32 The City Implements Improvements in the Fire Department
Chapter 33 The Families Advocate for Stronger Sprinkler Laws
Chapter 34 Citizens and the City, State, and Federal Governments Provide Support to the Families
Chapter 35 One Year after the SSS Fire
Chapter 36 The Ten-Year Anniversary—Never Forget
Chapter 37 The Charleston Firefighters Struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Epilogue
Afterword
Notes
Photographic Sources
Resource References to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the Fire Service

Author Thomas Woodley is donating profits from this book to the IAFF Disaster Relief Fund, which assists firefighters and emergency medical personnel—and their families—who are victims of hurricanes, tornados, floods, forest fires, and other natural disasters, and to the Lowcountry Firefighters Support Team, which provides help and guidance to firefighters who are struggling with the aftereffects of traumatic incidents.

T o professional firefighters and their families throughout the United States and Canada

The Crest and crowning of all good,
Life’s final star, is Brotherhood.
Edwin Markham
American poet
1852–1940

In the cover photo of the book, Ch arleston Fire Department Battalion Chief Robert O’Donald (on the right) reflects the exertion and stress of battling the Sofa Super Store fire.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND DISCLOSURES
On June 18, 2007, a day of overwhelming tragedy, nine firefighters, performing their sworn duty, responded to their last alarm and died as they bravely battled a rapidly escalating fire at the Sofa Super Store in Charleston, South Carolina. It was the largest number of career city firefighters killed in the line of duty since 9/11, when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed in New York City in 2001. Following the fire and the memorial services, thorough investigations and detailed reports revealed that the conditions created a “perfect storm”—a furniture store that was a time bomb waiting for its fuse to be lit, and a city fire department, at the time, that was understaffed, underequipped, and far below national standards of operations and firefighter safety.
In researching and writing this book and considering the lessons to be learned regarding the fire at the Sofa Super Store (hereafter sometimes referred to as SSS), I had the benefit of a comprehensive collection of multiple sources: documents, agency investigative reports, court deposition transcripts, media accounts, and individual interviews with Charleston Fire Department personnel. But before I make those acknowledgments, and consistent with full disclosure, it is appropriate to briefly outline my background and career and how I came to be very familiar with firefighters, their jobs and working conditions, and their dedicated commitment to protect the lives and property of citizens.
My interest in law and labor relations started at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. In the summers during my college years, I was a member of the Laborers’ Union, working as a construction laborer in my hometown of San Francisco. My increasing interest in workers’ rights continued at Georgetown University Law Center, from which I graduated in 1972. I then worked as a law clerk for a US District Court judge, the Honorable Oliver Gash, in Washington, DC, which served as an apprenticeship for developing skills needed in becoming a litigation attorney. Following active duty as a lieutenant in the army infantry, and recognizing my legal interests were in labor/employment law, I went to work as a litigation lawyer in the appellate court/law enforcement branch of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In that division of the NLRB, under the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, our responsibility was to pursue court enforcement of the findings and orders of the agency. While at the NLRB, I decided that my legal future would be in representing workers and their labor organizations, as contrasted with the employer/management side.
My connection to firefighters began in September 1976 when I joined a labor firm in Washington, DC, Mulholland & Hickey, representing railroad workers, firefighters, and other public employees and their unions. Over the next forty-three years, I worked closely with firefighters and emergency medical services employees and their union, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), headquartered in Washington, DC. In 1986, I had the privilege of becoming general counsel to the IAFF, which has a membership of over 325,000 firefighters and EMS workers in the United States and Canada. I finished actively practicing law in 2019, and in my recent retirement years, I found I had the time to research and write this book.
Through the law firm, Woodley & McGillivary, I litigated in federal and state courts and in other forums for over four decades, advocating for the constitutional and employment rights and the health and safety of firefighters. In the mid-1990s, I came to know and advised the firefighters and members of IAFF Local 61 employed by the City of Charleston, who were being deprived of overtime pay that was due them under the federal wage and hours law, known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). I represented those Charleston firefighters in a federal court enforcement action in the case of Buddy R. Carter, et al. v. City of Charleston . That litigation resulted in a court decision favorable to the firefighters (995 F. Supp. 622, August 20, 1997) and, in a later settlement agreement, provided them remedial relief. The firefighters were awarded their unlawfully withheld overtime pay and additional liquidated damages to compensate them for the years they were deprived of their overtime pay. The federal judge issued an order approving the parties’ settlement agreement as fair, reasonable, and consistent with the law. (Court order approving settlement, December 16, 1997.) The ju