CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – Passing motorists and a store worker frantically called authorities about a fire behind a furniture store the night nine firefighters perished inside, according to 911 tapes and transcripts released Thursday. An employee said the area was where workers took smoke breaks.

While federal investigators probing the blaze have not confirmed where the Monday night fire started, recordings of some of the 10 calls bolster what several city fire officials have said: The fire apparently started at the back of the store in a covered space between the showroom and a warehouse crammed with furniture.

“I’m at Sofa Super Store on Highway 17. There’s a huge fire in the back of the warehouse,” one male caller said. It appeared that “a little shed” was on fire, he said.

In another call, a woman told the dispatcher that she is at the store and “the back of the building is on fire, yes ma’am.”

The area, described as “a deck” by workers at the Sofa Super Store, housed a trash bin that was used by workers when they checked the condition of furniture before it was shipped to customers.

It also was used to store old sofas, mattresses and chairs before they were picked up for disposal – and by employees on their smoke breaks, store worker Sylvester Washington told The Associated Press.

He said the trash bin, used for cardboard boxes and plastic wrapping, was about half-full when he left work that night some 30 minutes before the fire. Nearby, a couch, a love seat, a sofa sleeper and a broken recliner sat on a loading ramp.

Washington said employees were warned against flicking cigarettes into the trash. “That’s grounds for dismissal,” he said.

Investigators have not discussed possible causes for the fire, and have not revealed if they are considering whether a cigarette could have started the blaze. Earl Woodham, spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said he could not comment on whether a cigarette may have started the fire.

The city only released the recordings of emergency calls to police. Calls to the Fire Department were not disclosed because they are still part of the federal investigation, said assistant city attorney Janie Borden.

A city document showed that firefighters did a walkthrough of the 30,000-square-feet furniture store in April 2006 to familiarize themselves with its interior, and drew a rough layout of the showroom floor. Their report included the location of the building’s exits and its nearest fire hydrant. The only concern they noted was that the warehouse in back had storage racks that were 30 feet tall. The men died in the showroom, according to Assistant Fire Chief Larry Garvin.

Dozens of federal investigators continued to comb the charred rubble of the store Thursday, searching for the cause of the blaze that blew out windows and collapsed the roof of the building in the nation’s deadliest firefighting tragedy since Sept. 11.

A large crane lifted pieces of the crumpled gray metal roof from the wreckage. Dogs trained to find accelerants also were being used in the investigation, but city officials have said arson is not suspected.

“We have made fantastic progress in this investigation, however, it still has to be a very systematic, deliberate investigation,” said Woodham, the ATF spokesman.

City officials also were preparing Thursday for thousands of firefighters and mourners expected to watch a procession of fire trucks wind their way past the store and several firehouses before a 10 a.m. memorial service Friday. The coffins of the nine men were to be in the arena, and the first of their funerals is planned for later in the day.

Firefighters from as far away as Arizona, New England and Alberta, Canada, will attend the memorial, said Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the International Association of Firefighters.

He said he was worried that a number of presidential candidates who were expected to attend could skew the focus of the event.

Among those whose public schedules and campaigns indicated they planned to attend were Republicans – Rudy Giuliani, former New York mayor, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee – as well as Barbara Richardson, wife of Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

“This event is about the firemen who were lost – honoring them and their families. It is not a political event and shouldn’t be politicized in any way,” Zack said.

South Carolina Firefighters Association president Joe Palmer said dignitaries will be seated at the back of the room, well away from firefighters’ families.

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Associated Press Writer Russ Bynum contributed to this report.

AP-ES-06-21-07 2039EDT