By BRUCE SMITH – The State

CHARLESTON — Mike Mulkey still expects to see his grown son walk through the back door of his home each evening, still listens for the footsteps of the man who lived to fight fires and died alongside eight comrades doing just that.

“We’re not doing too well,” said Mulkey, a 68-year-old Navy retiree. “We grieve every day. Some days we don’t cry, but most of the time we do.”

In the year since a furniture store blaze killed nine Charleston firefighters, emotions in the city still can run raw.

There has been blame for a Fire Department that used outdated tactics and equipment.

There has been pride from the people who knew those killed.

And there has been sorrow since the first bodies were pulled from the charred wreckage — the largest single loss of firefighters since the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center.

The site of the Sofa Super Store is now an empty, weed-covered lot with a single flagpole behind a chain-link fence. Nine crosses of white plastic pipe line the front — where they have stood since the days after the fire. On a nearby utility pole beneath another white cross is a simple sign: “God Bless Our Firefighters.”

The city has bought the property, though there has been no decision on how to use the land. Some have suggested a memorial; others a small park. Families of the victims plan to hold a private service there tonight.

WHAT WENT WRONG

After the funerals, Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. brought in a team of experts to evaluate the Fire Department, figure out what went wrong and make suggestions for improvements.

“We didn’t have to do that, but we realized it was very important,” the mayor said, reviewing what he has called the hardest thing he has dealt with in 33 years running the city.

In October, the team issued a preliminary report with 200 recommendations for changes in the Fire Department. Those suggestions include:

• Upgrading equipment and protective gear

• Offering better training

• Requiring that firetrucks don’t roll without at least four firefighters

The city plans to spend as much as $7 million on improvements.

Last month, Fire Chief Rusty Thomas announced his retirement after 32 years with the department. A day later, a second, more scathing report concluded inadequate training, aging equipment and faulty tactics contributed to the deaths of the men.

Thomas, who retires at the end of the month, did not return calls seeking comment.

“He worked with us and with the Fire Department and with this community to get through the first year,” Riley said. “That was going to be the toughest year.”

The second report also found that if the building had had sprinklers, the fire would have been confined to the loading dock where it started, an area where employees said they commonly smoked cigarettes. Families of six of the men have sued the store and various furniture and equipment manufacturers.

“You can’t find any good in the tragic deaths of nine courageous men,” said Harold Schaitberger, the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. But at least Charleston will get a better Fire Department, he said.

Mike Mulkey shares that sentiment.

“Good will come from this,” he said. “My son’s legacy will be a much improved Fire Department and they will be a class act.”

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