“Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding” – Jim Valvano
I set up The Fire Brief as a way to honor our fallen brothers and sisters by reviewing their cases to help prevent others from meeting the same fate. On this anniversary of the Sofa Super Store Fire that claimed the lives of the Charleston 9, I am reminded that my department used the City of Charleston Phase 1 Report to conduct an internal review based on the categories used in the report. Today I reviewed our work from 2008 and can see substancial progress has been made over the last 15 years, but many areas still need work (as they always will). I am proud to have played a key roll in this review and think we, as a department, did our best to honor our fallen brothers from Charlston, SC.
Think of the mental trauma this event inflicted on all those involved. For a better understanding of how we are affected by the trauma we see and are involved with, I suggest Create Your Own Light, by Travis Howze. Travis was a firefighter with Charleston FD at the time and was on the recovery team that recovered their 9 fallen brothers.
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