The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey)
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CHARLESTON, S.C. — Several firefighters entered a burning Charleston furniture store to save their colleagues already inside — and may have acted on their own — a source close to the investigation said .

"If your best friend was trapped in a fire, what would they have to do to hold you back?" said the official, who interviewed firefighters at the scene and requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

That scenario is one possible explanation why nine firefighters died. It was later found there was only one trapped store employee, who was rescued. Firefighters inside and outside the city's department have wondered how a fire in a one-story building could end so tragically.

New details about the rescue also suggest the firefighters who died were trying to save themselves in the inferno.

At 7:20 p.m. Monday, members of the nearby St. Andrews Fire Department saw black smoke as they left a Chinese restaurant. They rushed to the scene, and by 7:32 p.m. they had reported over the radio that they had rescued an employee in the store. The employee, Jonathan Tyrrell III, told the St. Andrews rescuers he was the only person in the store.

What happened next is unclear.

Within an hour, word had spread among firefighters that at least two men had died and five or more were injured.

Copies of radio conversations among firefighters, police and dispatchers during that hour haven't been released.

While the city prepared for a memorial service at North Charleston Coliseum today, documents released by the city raise questions about the safety of the discount furniture store before the blaze.

The owner of the Sofa Super Store successfully petitioned a county board in 1996 to exempt him from building a stronger fire-resistant wall in his furniture warehouse, which was a few feet from the showroom and adjacent to where the fire is believed to have started.

The warehouse was also destroyed in the blaze.

Documents released by the city show no building permit for the covered area between the warehouse and the showroom. One employee told the Associated Press that workers sometimes smoked there.

The warehouse would have required sprinklers if furniture was stored more than 12 feet high. Documents released from the city show that the 29-foot-tall warehouse had the capability of storing furniture up to 20 feet high.