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Coliseum staff also copes with loss
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
It was a morning that riveted Charleston.As helicopters whirred overhead and a string of black hearses awaited them outside, the nine Charleston firefighters who lost their lives in the Sofa Super Store furniture store on June 18 were remembered not just for their heroism and devotion to community, but as neighbors, fathers, coaches and members of local church communities.
Nearly 16,000 firefighters from across the country crowded into the North Charleston Coliseum for a morning memorial service that started out with a procession in downtown Charleston.
Another several thousand watched the event unfold inside the Charleston Area Convention Center and on a large screen that had been erected on the convention center’s grounds.
But what was largely unknown at the time was that the staff of the municipal auditorium was also experience their own personal grief: Five of the nine fallen firefighters had worked at one time or another as stagehands at the facility: two recently—Engineer Bradford “Brad” Baity and firefighter James “Earl” Drayton.
In fact Drayton had been recognized for 10 years of service with Stagehand Local 333 last year.
“It was often said in the aftermath of the fire that everybody knows a fireman and that nobody becomes a fireman to get rich,” said John Trinkl, assistant general manager of the convention center complex that includes the North Charleston coliseum. “Well, these guys, as a side job, often worked in support of our events.
“So in the end, these weren’t only fallen fighters we were honoring, these were fellow employees and our friends,” he said. “As a result, I think everybody felt they had a personal stake in the memorial and seeing that it came off well and with dignity.”
The coliseum had gone into full event mode within hours of word that the nine fire fighters have been lost, Trinkl said.
“Mayor (Keith) Summey had called Mayor (Joseph P.) Riley and told him that no matter what Charleston needed, North Charleston would be there to support him,” Trinkl said. “That quickly evolved in the coliseum being the site of the memorial.”
In spite of the accelerated schedule preparing for the memorial required, Trinkl said there were some advantages working in the facility’s favor. One was the professionalism of the S.C. Firefighters’ Association.
“Despite the fact that we had never done something like this in the state, they quickly formulated a plan and that made our job much, much easier,” he explained. “The other thing was that the stage was still in place from the last graduation we had hosted and it turned out to be exactly the right sized stage in the right location for what they wanted to do.”
Trinkl described a scene in which all of the coliseum’s extended family, approximately 20 full-time employees and many more part-timers, pulled together to get lighting in place, risers ready and chairs set up on the coliseum floor.
Other tasks included setting up a Jumbotron outside the coliseum so people who couldn’t get into the coliseum could still watch the service, and preparing rooms in the convention center to accommodate overflow for the event.
“One of the most fitting tributes, I think, came from our stagehands. They contributed something like 350 to 400 man hours to the effort, perform many nonunion chores, and would not take a paycheck for what they did,” Trinkl said.
He also credited the participation of the participation of the American Red Cross and the Coastal Chaplaincy as essential to making sure the memorial came together and transpired in a meaningful way.
“In the end, it was a very beautiful and fitting tribute to the lives the firemen had lived, and hopefully, it was comforting to the families in their time of need,” Trinkl said.
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