Key factors identified in a report on the Sofa Super Store fire

Tyrone Walker
The Post and Courier/File

Building and Property

The Sofa Super Store was a high risk occupancy that presented several specific risks to the health and safety of firefighters. The fire risk factors that were found in this occupancy also presented risks to the employees, customers, neighbors, and the surrounding community. The level of fire risk exceeded the limits prescribed by established regulations and would have —or should have — been mitigated if the applicable codes and standards had been followed, applied, and enforced.

The fire could have been prevented. If the property had been constructed and maintained in accordance with state and local codes the fire would have been quickly controlled: no lives would have been lost and the fire would have been of little consequence.

Fire Department Operations

The fire suppression operations that were conducted by the Charleston Fire Department at the Sofa Super Store did not comply with federal occupational health and safety regulations, with NFPA consensus standards, or with modern fire service expectations. These deviations from standard operational and safety practices exposed firefighters to excessive risks and failed to remove the nine deceased firefighters from a critically dangerous situation.

The predominant factor identified in the analysis of Fire Department operations is the failure to manage the incident according to accepted practices. There was no structured incident command system in place and the essential duties of an Incident Commander were not performed. The operation was conducted in an unstructured and uncoordinated manner, without overall direction and with inadequate supervision.

The Charleston Fire Department was inadequately staffed, inadequately trained, insufficiently equipped, and organizationally unprepared to conduct an operation of this complexity in a large commercial occupancy. The Department attempted to compensate for the limited resources and organizational inadequacies by engaging in dangerously aggressive and uncoordinated fire fighting operations.