Firefighters struggled to find a hydrant for one fire engine as the blaze spread. Passing cars on the road beside the store kept running over hoses. And large-diameter hoses were not put into use until 20 minutes after the showroom where the men died was engulfed in flames, according to the report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The agency is still compiling its final report on the blaze. The draft also does not discuss the cause of the June 18 blaze at the Sofa Super Store, which officials also have not reported.
The report sheds light on the confusion that enveloped firefighters as what was initially reported as a small trash fire turned into an inferno.
The 54-page draft includes a minute-by-minute account of the fire and a map of where the bodies of the nine firefighters were found in and near the store's main showroom. It also details five minutes of chaos when the showroom went from seemingly clear to a smoke-filled maze of sofas, tables and other furniture.
Firefighters trying to follow hoses into or out of the building ran into each other. Hoses burst and it took several minutes to get water from a tanker whose pump some firefighters recalled was "touchy." Charleston fire Chief Rusty Thomas initially refused an offer of bigger hoses and a special camera that detects heat from another fire department.
The report recounts a scene 29 minutes after the first call of flames came in: Two firefighters sent into the front of the store to look for missing comrades found two other firefighters. One was on his hands and knees screaming, trying to drag a partner to safety. Just as the rescuers started guiding them to hoses to follow outside, combustible material in the furniture erupted in flames that filled the building.
One of the rescuers suffered second-degree burns as the pair barely made it out of the building alive, leaving behind the shrieks of locator beacons from those trapped inside.
A timeline details three minutes of broken radio traffic from firefighters in distress: "(Firefighter) calls mayday; another (firefighter) heard praying; another says `I love you.' "
