It’s hard to believe, but it has been 2 years since the night of the Sofa Superstore Fire.  In some ways it feels like it happened yesterday, in other ways, it feels like it happened 4 years ago.  The fallen 9 are being remembered across the Lowcountry today.

Here’s a look at how I experienced the Sofa Superstore fire:

My main shift was to produce the 5 or 6PM newscast each night, Monday-Friday.  On the night of the Sofa Superstore, I was off during the day, because the morning producer had the next day off. I was scheduled to work the overnight shift and produce the morning show the next morning.  As I left I-26 to ride up the Ravenel bridge headed to Mount Pleasant at around 10-10:30 that night, I looked toward West Ashley and noticed a big cloud of smoke rising. Since I had slept that afternoon, I was not aware of the tragedy that was happening below that smoke.  Once at the station, I spoke with a couple of the reporters about what the smoke was. I didn’t realize how bad it was at first.  We have fires in Charleston all the time. 

When Brad Franko came in, I knew immediately that this was different.  He had just come from the site, and he said things did not look good.  It was getting close to midnight, and we had to decide what the plan was for the morning show.  We basically decided to play it by ear.  Brad and Warren were at the site a good bit of the night, and into the morning.

As reports of missing firefighters came in, it was clear that this would not be a normal broadcast.  Charleston was stunned.  I know I was.  It just didn’t seem possible.  9 firefighter gone in one fire.  I’d driven by the Sofa Superstore probably hundreds of times.

Warren and Brad anchored our morning show coverage from 5AM live at the site until well into the morning.  I think I was in the booth until about 11-11:30AM.  At that point, another producer came in to take over until around 1-2PM.  The exact times are a blur to me now, but I think that’s about right.  I am so proud of our work that morning.  I was so glad that the schedule had been switched.  That change allowed me to play a small role in honoring those brave men.

Looking back, it is still amazing to me that we were able to pull off probably 8 hours of coverage with very few if any glitches.  There was very little in the way of planned programming, because the entire story was changing so fast.  We just watched what was happening, and Warren and Brad helped explain what wasn’t obvious to us (the viewer.) 

Today is a day that Charleston will never forget.  T.V. stations in this city will help make sure we all remember the fallen 9.

What about you?  Tell me your story.  How did you find out about it?  What were your thoughts?  Leave a comment, I’d love to read it.

Raymond