By BRUCE SMITH
\nAssociated Press Writer<\/p>\n
CHARLESTON, S.C. A roof at a furniture store loading dock where a fire that killed nine firefighters broke out was built without a required permit, a city official said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Anytime you modify anything, particularly with a commercial building, you are required to get a permit,” said Laura Cabiness, Charleston’s public services director.
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\nThe loading dock was located between the showroom at the Sofa Super Store and a large warehouse. Both were gutted by the June 18 fire, the worst single loss of U.S. firefighters’ lives since the Sept. 11 attacks.<\/p>\n
Cabiness said it was not clear whether the roof work would have required safety features such as sprinklers.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t determined that yet. There are a lot of factors that go into an addition,” she said. “We don’t have enough information on it at this point.”<\/p>\n
Building codes did not require the now-charred showroom or warehouse to have sprinklers.<\/p>\n
Officials said they did not know about the work until The (Charleston) Post and Courier published aerial pictures of the damage following last week’s fire.<\/p>\n
Federal officials have traced the fire to a trash bin on the loading dock, but have not released a cause.<\/p>\n
The loading dock and another area where used furniture was stored until it could be disposed of was sometimes used by employees for cigarette breaks.<\/p>\n
Owner Herb Goldstein did not think a permit was needed to build a roof over the loading dock, said Colleen Troy, a spokeswoman for the store.<\/p>\n
“It was a deck that the employees used for loading and for working and they had complained over time about the heat and so they covered it,” she said.<\/p>\n
Troy said the work had occurred sometime since 2001 and said the loading dock has existed since the 1990s.<\/p>\n
People paused Tuesday on the sidewalk in front of the burned-out store, more than a week after the fire, to see the makeshift memorials that include toys, white crosses and T-shirts. Many of the flowers had dried and faded in the hot summer sun.<\/p>\n
Beyond the yellow police tape, a fence was being put up around the ruined structure.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the last of the funerals for the nine fallen firefighters was also held Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. and Fire Chief Rusty Thomas flew to Indiana along with 19 members of the Charleston Fire Department for the funeral of Engineer Mark Kelsey.<\/p>\n
Kelsey, 40, had served on the department for more than a dozen years. Services were scheduled in Washington, Ind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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