Then & Now: The truth about Charleston from the last officer out
By Cindy Devone-Pacheco

As many departments across the country know all too well, the effects of a line-of-duty death (LODD) are deeply felt, long lasting and far reaching. Firefighters and civilians alike who were alive on 9/11 will forever be able to recall precisely where they were when they heard that two planes had flown into the World Trade Center buildings.

Of course, 9/11 is incomparable in its magnitude; it was and will remain one of the most significant attacks to take place on American soil. But even a single LODD can leave a department reeling, drastically altering employee morale, day-to-day operations and community support for years to come. One department that’s still trying to get back on its feet from a multiple LODD incident: Charleston, S.C.

The June 18, 2007, Sofa Super Store Fire holds the painful distinction of being the fire that resulted in the largest single loss of firefighters following 9/11. Nine firefighters went into the building and never came out. For the past 3 years, the Charleston Fire Department (CFD) has been making sweeping changes in an effort to ensure a similar event never occurs again. And although those efforts have brought the department a long way from where it was 3 years ago, some of the firefighters who lived through the tragedy are still fighting the fire in their minds.

I recently had the honor of speaking with Captain Mark Davis, a CFD company officer who was the last officer to exit the Super Store the day of the fire. He attests to the incident’s long-lasting effects and candidly shares his thoughts on where the department stands today.

Cindy Devone-Pacheco: Captain Davis, what has been the greatest challenge for you as a company officer following this incident?

Captain Mark Davis: That’s a fairly easy question to answer: the rapid change in the fire department, the psychological and emotional changes.

If you’ve ever had a friend who was sick or dying, and you had to watch what you said around them, it’s kind of like that. You never know the mindset someone is in when you come to work. You try to stay even-keeled. And it’s not that you worry so much about doing the job, it’s handling the small things. There’s no training for what happened to us. I don’t think you could ever train for that. That comes from life experience.

When Chief Tom Carr and Chief John Tippet came on, they had no idea what it was like; it might as well have been the Twilight Zone here. So there’s that division [with new members of the administration], but there’s also a dividing line between the guys who were here who went through it and the guys who didn’t.

CDP: What do you feel have been the most significant changes within the CFD?

Davis: There were changes that were naturally occurring: the attitudes and psychological impact, the differences in the age bracket. Out of the 10 guys at my station on my shift, I’m the oldest due to most of the older guys retiring. There’s one guy here who’s a day younger than me; I’m 36. Everyone else is younger. That was never the case before.

As far as fire service-based changes, the culture is moving toward a safer response. The job is still the job, someone still has to go put the fires out, but we’re changing the technology now, trying to work smarter, not harder. There’s also more manpower on the trucks, and we’re responding in a safer, more organized, methodical manner.

CDP: What do you see in the future for the CFD?

Davis: I don’t know that I can even think that far down the road. My timeline has become so shortened because of what happened; now it’s a day-to-day struggle. Things are changing and that’s good, but not all changes are good. Everyone’s timeline has changed. I don’t know if I’ll make it 10 more years on the job. People are much more worried about their physical wellbeing, their emotional wellbeing.

I can tell you what I’d like to see. I’d like us to be a larger department. We always fought the fire, but I hope we become a more well-rounded department and do things we’ve never done before. And I hope the younger guys will come in the door and see themselves working here 25 years with a decent wage and a decent benefit package.

CDP: What would you like firefighters and company officers throughout the fire service to take away from this incident?

Davis: There’s a cavalier attitude across the fire service. Everyone thinks they’re bullet-proof, like the police with their bullet-proof vests. I always tell people that there were only two times in my life when I was truly scared: The first was while I was trying to get out of the building low on air and lost; the second is when I had to go back inside and look for lost firefighters. But until you’ve been in that situation, where you’ve worked side by side with someone, you see them every shift, and then you have an LODD, it’s a very hard message to get across. But every firefighter in this country who hasn’t been involved in an LODD, doesn’t think it can happen to them.

I’m not proud of it. I don’t wear a T-shirt that says I was there. I hope no one ever has to go through that. If people could see what I see when I close my eyes, they would have a whole different perspective on firefighting.

After this happened, the support we got from fire departments around the country was great. The fire service really is a brotherhood. But 10 years ago, I would’ve never told you that this could happen to us. And for us to lose people in this business is inexcusable.

Cindy Devone-Pacheco is senior editor of FireRescue magazine.