No action on fire code until January

Thursday, 21 June 2007

Page 2 of 2 The store is owned by Herbert Goldstein, who bought it in 1995, according to Charleston County records. Goldstein, who lives on nearby Sullivan’s Island, also owns several residential properties in the area. There is one other Sofa Super Store in the Charleston area, located at 8551 Rivers Ave. in North Charleston. In his only public comment since the tragedy, a written statement posted on the Sofa Super Store Web site, Goldstein said all who are connected with the business were heartbroken and devastated by the tragedy. “There are no words to express our sorrow. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the heroic firefighters who lost their lives,” he said. The building that housed the Super Sofa Store was about 50 years old and at one point was a Piggly Wiggly grocery store. Prior to the mid-1990s, there was no black line standard for when sprinklers must be installed in a business. Generally, the threshold was that buildings larger than 15,000-square feet needed to have them, but there were also mitigating factors, such as what building materials were used, that went into the determination. A wood structure would have to have sprinklers, for instance, while one constructed of masonry might not. Although the threshold for sprinklers was lowered to 12,000 square feet, material composition and age were still significant considerations as to whether sprinklers were required. State lawmakers last attempted to address the issue of sprinklers in commercial establishments three years ago, after six people were killed in a hotel fire in Greenville. In the aftermath of that tragedy, lawmakers considered a bill that would have required most hotels in the state to be retrofitted with sprinklers. That bill died, however, after hotel owners said the retrofits would be too costly. Instead, the state requires hotels without sprinklers to display a sign in the lobby that informs patrons that they don’t have them. Joel Sawyer, a Sanford spokesman, said while the governor is following developments in Charleston closely, he also has no plans to introduce new or emergency fire safety measures in the near term. “But he’s certainly interested in taking a look at whatever the Legislature comes up with,” Sawyer said. << Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>