‘I will never forget the Charleston nine’

By Jonathan Tyrrell

AP Photo/Stephen Morton Jonathan Tyrell.

I will never forget the Charleston nine. I will never forget what they did and what they sacrificed. All of the firefighters will always be in my prayers.

When I was in the store with the fire, I got a glimpse into their world and what they have to fight. Obviously you know they fight fires but you don’t actually know what it’s like until you see it first-hand, the risks and everything that goes with it.

I appreciate so much more what they do – and obviously I am so glad they were there.

It was a life-changing moment for me. It’s pretty much always there for me. At night, sometimes I drive to the site and look at the crosses they have got there for the firefighters. I am definitely not going to forget.

On the day of the fire, I got to work close to about 5 pm. There were two full-time guys that worked in the back in the day, but when I got there they would leave and I’d be by myself.

I was sitting on a chair and working on a bedframe when I noticed there was like a gush of wind that came from underneath the door and I could hear plastic wrapping and stuff blowing against it.

The first thing I thought was that they had left one of the big industrial fans on out there. I went to the other door, which was kind of like the front, main door to the warehouse and opened it to check if the fan was on.

When I opened it, I saw that furniture that was stacked on metal racks was on fire. Down toward the other side of the building I could see that flames were even higher.

At that point I went around the corner to see if I could get out there. There was a fire door, but it was shut and was already on fire. I didn’t even try to open it as I figured it would be too hot.

Another gust
I went back to my room but when I tried to shut the door, there was another gust of wind and it pushed it back open. I kept pushing it but it took a couple of minutes to get it closed.

Once I got it closed, I tried calling 911 on my cellphone. I kept trying but I just couldn’t get through. I just stood there wondering what I could do. I tried to find a screwdriver as I thought I could use it to try and unscrew one of the two window units but I couldn’t find one.

But I got the next best thing, a hammer, and tried knocking it out. But it wasn’t breaking. There was a fan, an air conditioning unit, above one of the windows so I tried knocking that out.

Then, all a sudden it went dark, the power had gone out. I couldn’t see anything. It was completely dark in there. I thought ‘I’m not going to get out of here.’

I got down off the table which I had been standing on, went back toward the door and tried dialing 911 again. I finally got through. I had never been able to get any reception in there before. For me, it was a true miracle that I got through then,

It was heartbreaking to learn that they had got trapped and weren’t able to get out.

I told them that I was in the back of the Sofa Store and they punched me through to dispatch. I told them exactly where I was and where they could come to get me out. They told me to get down as close to the ground as I could and stay down. Then they phone cut out.

Punch hole
Some moments later I could hear them outside of the building, trying to punch a hole through. As soon as I heard them, I said to myself ‘I am going to get out of here.’

It took them one, two, maybe three minutes. It was a sheet metal wall, quite thin, so it seemed quite easy for them to cut a hole.

I remember looking out at them. There was three firefighters that I could see standing a little further back and there were two on each side of the hole, although I could only really see their arms and hands.

I was waiting to see if they would flag me to come out, but they didn’t so I literally tried to jump through the hole. I got wedged as the hole wasn’t that wide. They told me to calm down and stop moving. They then pulled me out and took me to the front of the building, sat me down in front of one of our delivery trucks.

Then I think they went into the store, but it all seemed to be happening so fast. Paramedics came over to me and they had oxygen gear which they gave me and then they put me in an ambulance.

I remember the ambulance had to be moved several times as there seemed to be more and more fire trucks arriving.

I was then taken to the hospital downtown. I remember a police officer came with me to the hospital and while I was there he took statement. He left and then came back a short time later with another officer. That was when they told me nine firefighters had died in there.

It was heartbreaking to learn that they had got trapped and weren’t able to get out. I felt so sad for their families.