Gordon Routley, the leader of the independent review team that investigated the Sofa Super Store fire and the Charleston Fire Department’s response, is still teaching other departments about what Charleston did wrong and how they can avoid making the same mistakes.
Routley mad a presentation over the weekend at the Fire-Rescue International.
“If there’s anything we can do to honor these nine firefighters, it’s to teach our firefighters and ourselves not to let the same thing happen to us,” he said.
Routley told audience members during the session that many firefighters’ reactions to the findings are disbelief at the way Charleston was run.
But he said it’s important for people to look at individual elements of the recommendations and see if there is anything they can learn, too.
“You should ask if there are things going on in the Charleston incident that can happen to our department when we go back home, little parts of it,” he said.
Routley noted in his comments that the development of a strategic plan for Charleston FD is on hold while the mayor weeds through applications for the new fire chief.
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