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Business, city fined in Sofa Super Store blaze
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
A series of decisions made in part to keep vagrants from entering his Savannah Highway establishment after business hours may cost the owner of the Sofa Super Store chain more than $30,000 in connection with the fire that claimed nine firefighters’ lives on June 18.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Sept. 20 fined store owner Herb Goldstein and the Charleston Fire Department for violating state safety regulations.
The retailer was fined $29,400 for the most serious of the violations he allegedly committed: Failing to ensure that Sofa Super Store employees were able at all times to open an exit door from the inside without special keys, tools or knowledge.
Exit doors on the front and rear of a warehouse adjacent to the retail showroom were padlocked from the outside on the night of the inferno that completely destroyed both buildings.
In addition, two sets of double-hung exit doors on one side of the store’s showroom were locked with sliding bolts on the top and the bottom of the doors. Another exit door on the other side of the showroom was padlocked from the outside.
Goldstein was also cited for the absence in the store of such safeguards as sprinkler systems, alarm systems and exit-door lighting, and for not having a written emergency action plan in place and accessible for store employees.
One store worker was trapped during the blaze but was pulled to safety by firefighters.
The fine for the lack of sprinklers and other safeguards in the store is $2,500; for the lack of an adequate emergency plan, $875. In total, the store was fined $32,775.
The fines must be paid or appealed by Oct. 3.
In a written statement, Goldstein praised the Charleston firefighters. But he also defended having locked the doors.
“Our managers locked the doors at closing time to keep criminals and transients out of the building, and only when there were no customers present,” Goldstein said.
The report cited the fire department for four violations, including one “willful” violation for having an inadequate command structure that could ensure firefighter safety in an emergency. The fine for that violation alone is $7,000.
In all, the department now faces $9,325 in fines, which, like those levied against the retailer, must be paid or appealed by Oct. 3.
At a press conference at Charleston City Hall hours after the fines were announced, Riley said the city will fight the citations and has asked for a hearing to defend itself.
Following the fire, the city changed some of the policies that incurred the fines, but he believes the citations were unfair and wrongly issued, Riley said.
The fire department was cited for failure to have procedures for fighting a fire involving a metal truss roof, according to state officials. A city inspection report on the building compiled months before the June 18 fire made no mention of the steel truss structure.
Steel trusses are prone to failure in fires because the steel weakens when heated. The roof of the Sofa Super Store collapsed less than an hour after firefighters arrived at the scene.
The city was also cited for failure to inform fire brigade members about special hazards regarding flammable liquids and other chemicals, for failing to require that body protection be worn by nine firemen in interior structural firefighting at the superstore, and for failing to ensure that self-contained breathing apparatus was worn at all times by four firemen exposed to smoke and toxic substances while fighting the fire.
Legal observers said the missteps identified in the citations could open the door to lawsuits against both the store and the city. In July, Motley Rice, the Mount Pleasant law firm specializing in class-action lawsuits, filed a motion in state court to preserve evidence from the night of the blaze.
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@setcommedia.com.
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