By Ron Menchaca and Glenn Smith
The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Two more families of firefighters killed in the Sofa Super Store blaze have filed lawsuits against the store’s owner, several furniture manufacturers and other companies, alleging the businesses were negligent in the deaths of their loved ones.
The suits were filed Tuesday on behalf of Lauren B. Mulkey, widow of Capt. Louis Mulkey, and Raymond C. Cofield Jr., father-in-law of Capt. Mike Benke. Both families declined to comment through their attorney, Larry Richter of Mount Pleasant.
“Nine brave men have fallen,” Richter said. “Others have suffered and continue to suffer a truly irreplaceable loss.”
The families of three other firefighters who perished June 18 — Capt. Billy Hutchinson and firefighters Melvin Champaign and Brad Baity — already have filed similar wrongful-death suits.
The latest legal actions come just ahead of a highly anticipated consultants’ report on the events and circumstances that led to the nine deaths. A city-appointed panel is expected to release its report Thursday.
Richter said the timing of the lawsuits so close to the report was a coincidence. “We are not running toward or from any reports.”
None of the suits filed to date name the city of Charleston or its Fire Department as defendants, although Mayor Joe Riley and Fire Chief Rusty Thomas were subpoenaed in October as part of the Champaign lawsuit, the first to be filed.
The suits target the site’s owners, the manufacturers of the furniture in the store, a building contractor and the companies that built the fire doors that investigators later determined had malfunctioned.
The new suits differ only slightly in that they allege the furniture manufacturers failed to warn people selling and using the furniture that the products contain polyurethane foam, a flammable material that can increase the potential danger in the event of a fire.
Sofa store attorney Richard Rosen could not be reached for comment Tuesday. In response to the previous suits, Rosen said the store’s owners have worked since the fire to ensure that a similar tragedy never occurs and have cooperated at every step of the investigations.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering tougher standards for manufacturers of residential upholstered furniture. The commission estimates that in fires between 2002 and 2004, in which upholstered furniture was the first item to ignite, 540 lives were lost and $250 million in property losses were sustained each year.
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