CHARLESTON, S.C. – As they prepared to bury nine of their own, grieving firefighters on Wednesday joined investigators trying to make sense of why so many of their comrades died in a horrific warehouse fire, searching for victims who weren’t there.

The captain whose station lost six men wondered if the department’s aggressive approach to the fire was appropriate.

“That’s the way we train,” Cpt. Patrick Sandford said. “Now was that the right policy on this one? In retrospect, maybe not. But in this case, everything that could go wrong did.”

Investigators refused to reveal details Wednesday about the chain of events and decision-making on the scene. They wouldn’t say who decided to send firefighters into the burning building. They also declined to release records of 911 calls as well as fire inspection reports on the Sofa Super Store.

Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten said the firefighters died of smoke inhalation and burns. The men were spread across the building when the roof collapsed.

Wooten said there was no indication that they were killed by the collapsing roof, shelving or that they suffered any significant trauma. She said the roof could have been a contributing factor to their deaths.

Firefighters rescued one employee from a warehouse at the Super Sofa Store.

Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley pledged that investigators will find out what went wrong.

“They were going on information that someone else was in the building,” he said. “These are all questions that need to be asked and are being asked and will be answered, but right now we’re getting ready to bury nine guys.”

More than 50 federal, state and local fire investigators converged on the blackened wreckage on U.S. Highway 17 just south of the city. Residents streamed by all day, dropping off flowers, American flags, even a Superman doll, as gestures of respect for the heroism of the firefighters.

The fire began sometime before 6:30 p.m. EDT, officials said, in a trash bin behind the furniture showroom. Flames spread quickly to the showroom and an adjacent warehouse, then consumed highly-flammable sofas and other furniture that filled the buildings.

Firefighters rescued the employee by punching a hole in the warehouse wall.

Witnesses described black smoke, towering flames and temperatures that may have reached 1000 degrees, well beyond the limits of most firefighters’ protective gear. Protective clothing and breathing apparatus are typically designed to withstand sustained temperatures of 300 to 400 degrees, experts said.

The coroner said the fallen men were recovered wearing their equipment, including air tanks and masks.

Wooten was joined by Riley, whose eyes teared when he told of receiving phone calls and e-mail from around the country – from Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama – as well as children delivering chocolate cookies to the firehouses on Wednesday.

“There’s been a tremendous outpouring of affection. This has become a national event because it reminds all of us of the brave and heroic men these firefighters are,” said Riley, at times clenching his fists while blinking away tears.

Riley also said that some death benefits were being granted immediately and coverage for dependents was being extended.

Captain in tears

Captain Sandford, from Station No. 16, was off duty Monday when another firefighter called him about 7:15 p.m. and told him about the fire. He wasn’t in uniform, so he helped pull hoses outside the store.

Later, he learned that six men from Station No. 16, including three captains, were dead inside the rubble. As a captain in the unit, he felt it was his duty to make sure each of their bodies was retrieved.

“I carried six of my guys from the building,” he said, sobbing and wiping away tears. “I sat with them while the rest of the body recovery was going on, and brought them to the coroners’ vans.”

He said Charleston firefighters are trained to enter buildings they think they can save, even when they are burning. It’s an aggressive approach, he said, but they have saved many buildings over the years.

But, pressed by reporters for details about who made the call to enter the building, Assistant Chief Ronnie Classon said firefighters thought a person needed rescuing.

Asked who made the call to enter the building, he replied: “When they arrive they make their own decision because there’s usually no chief on the scene. The captains make the decision to go inside or stay outside.

Capt. Morris Sills of the neighboring St. Andrews fire department responded to the scene with some of his men. He said he sounded his truck’s horn when he noticed that one part of the metal structure had gotten so hot it was sagging and bending.

The side of the warehouse glowed “like when you leave a pot on the stove for too long,” he said.

As two of his men approached the showroom doors, he said the fire did a “flashover” – a phenomenon that occurs when everything in the room reaches “ignition temperature,” Sills said, and bursts into flame.

Then it collapsed.


Firefighters from Station 16 said when their units first arrived, it appeared to be a minor fire in a trash bin near the furniture store.

Art Wittner, an engineer, drove his colleagues to the scene just before 7 p.m. in Engine No. 16. His captain, Mike Benke, grinned at him and told him to man the fire hydrant. Benke and the other men aboard his truck went into the fire, where they died.

“I feel guilty that I wasn’t with them,” Wittner said Wednesday, choking back sobs. “Why me? Why did I get to come home to an empty station?”

Sandford said his colleagues were trained to move in small groups inside burning buildings, keeping within speaking distance of each other. In low visibility situations like the furniture store fire, he added, they push toward the glow of the fire.

Sandford said the highly flammable materials inside the building – plastic-covered mattresses and upholstered furniture – went up in flames so quickly it left little time for planning or reaction.

He said the nine firefighters were found as much as 100 feet inside.

Wittner, the engineer who drove Engine No. 16 to the fire, said he wanted everyone to know his colleagues were like family to him. At about 6:30 p.m. Monday, they were sitting around the firehouse having a good-natured argument about what to have for dinner.

Some wanted pizza. No, chicken and rice, others said. Then, the call came, and they left for the fire.

They liked to joke that they were “a functional dysfunctional family,” Wittner recalled. “These guys were a class act. We had our disagreements, but when the alarm sounded, we were one.”

He later broke down in tears as a friend and former firefighter walked into the fire station and gave him a hug.

“They were doing the right thing,” Wittner said, his face buried in his friend’s shoulder. “They were doing the right thing.”

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(McClatchy Newspapers correspondents Liz Chandler and Jackie Alexander contributed.)

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(c) 2007, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): SCFIRE

AP-NY-06-20-07 2245EDT