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Community prepares for Charleston 9’s 7th anniversary

The fire department will ring a bell and call out the names of the nine firefighters who died battling the Sofa Super Store fire

WCIV

HARLESTON, S.C. — Wednesday marks seven years since nine Charleston city firemen lost their lives in what’s been called one of the department’s worst tragedies. On the eve of the anniversary, the community prepared to mark the passage of another year.

Julie Cole and her son David, will likely never forget June 18, 2007. “It was a normal, sunny day,” said Julie. “The kids were at a neighbor’s house swimming in their pool.” David Cole was just nine years old. “It was a couple of weeks after my birthday,” said David as he reflected on the day. “It was maybe 6:30, 7 p.m. I remember kind of hearing like a pop or a bang or something. I kind of lifted my head out of the water.”

That’s when Julie Cole says her son rushed home to tell her what he heard. “We just heard sirens, one after the other,” said Julie Cole. “The street was filled with people and fire trucks and the smoke was just growing in intensity.” The Cole family lives behind the site of the Sofa Super Store on Savannah Highway. They were just yards from the inferno. “At one point we started to load up the car because of the flames and everything was growing in intensity,” Julie Cole said. “And we felt like we should start loading up the car and getting the kids out.”

Full story: Community prepares for Charleston 9’s 7th anniversary

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