The Associated Press

• Mayor Joe Riley's Letter to Chief Rusty Thomas (pdf)
• Rusty Thomas's Letter to Joe Riley (pdf)

AP Photo/Alice Keeney Rusty Thomas speaks after the fire.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Longtime Charleston Fire Chief Rusty Thomas has announced he'll resign, a decision coming nearly a year after a furniture store blaze killed nine of his men.

In a letter to the mayor, Thomas says he's retiring at the end of June to help the city continue to heal.

Thomas, who has served as chief since 1992, was criticized after last year's Sofa Super Store fire and his department has been taken to task for outdated equipment and procedures.

A city commissioned report on the fire is due to be released Thursday.

The announcement came shortly after two more families of the dead firefighters filed suit against Sofa Super Store.

The Charleston Post and Courier reports the wrongful death lawsuits accuse the companies of negligence.

The lawsuits were filed Tuesday by Lauren Mulkey, widow of Capt. Louis Mulkey, and Raymond Cofield Jr., father-in-law of Capt. Mike Benke.

Those men and seven other firefighters died in the June 18 fire.

It was the nation's greatest loss of firefighters since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

The families of three other firefighters have filed similar lawsuits.