Charleston, South Carolina. Today they held a memorial at the site of the furniture warehouse where earlier this week 9 firefighters died while fighting a fire. Apparently they had rescued one store employee and returned to see if there were anymore inside when the roof collapsed.
I remember in March of 1989 responding to a furniture showroom/warehouse fire. It was well off until we arrived. Four or five guys and I took a 3" handline into the front door but with the heat and smoke reducing visibility to near nothing we only advanced maybe 15 to 20 feet. One by one guys backed out, low air, too hot, too dark, I can't blame them, all I was trying to do was get some water under the roof. But when the nozzle hit the floor I knew that meant one thing; no more water. I yelled for everyone to get out (OK, I may have added some additional colorful adjectives to my command) we all kinda helped the man in front of us towards the door. I was the last out, I remember lunging for the door and hitting the jamb between them then lunging again and rolling out into the parking lot. I must have scared someone, other than myself, I remember yelling, asking where my water got to, as 2 or 3 guys were stripping my pack and coat off, I must have been smoking pretty bad. Later, once a better water supply was found a half mile or so away by our engine, we made another weak attempt at entering the front door. They realized it was futile and we backed out. At this point operations became "surround and drown". My guys and I made our way up the hill to were our engine was pumping from a pond and waited until morning when we were able to start packing hose, cleaning up and going home.
Last Monday marked the worst loss of firefighters since 9-11-2001. God bless you brothers and thank you for your service
Capt. William "Billy" Hutchinson
Capt. Mike Benke
Capt. Louis Mulkey
Mark Kelsey
Bradford "Brad" Baity
Michael French
James "Earl" Drayton
Brandon Thompson
Melvin Champaign
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