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Over aggressive, ill equipped and lack of leadership, all part of the scathing report released by the city's own review team. Some of Thursday's findings were tough to hear. Chief Rusty Thomas sat and listened to a laundry list of what went wrong and what could have been done to save those nine lives.
There were words of remorse.
"I'm just sorry that I couldn’t do more than night to being back by nine family members I lost that night," said Charleston Fire Chief Rusty Thomas.
There were words of accountability.
"I accept the responsibility of the fire because I was on the scene," said Thomas. "I would give anything if we could have done one or two things or half a thing different that night. Any of us including myself, to not have this tragedy," said Thomas.
But according to this report, there were several things that could have been done.
"A lot of people called for my resignation early on, but I didn’t go to the mayor and say ‘Can I stay in honor of those nine?’ I went to work the next day because that's what Rusty Thomas wanted to do," said Thomas.
Despite his apology, Thomas sticks by what happened that night.
"No one, no expert, no expert in this country will ever know what took place inside that building that night. I'm sorry but they won’t, no one will ever know. Our guys fought that fire the way they knew how to fight it," said Thomas.
But it was the way they fought it that night, that the report criticizes.
"I think so many of the councilmen say ‘Hey maybe we didn’t have the fire department we thought we did," said Charleston City Councilman, Timothy Mallard.
A fire department is now in need of a new leader and some council members want their voices heard.
"We're dying to help, 12 heads are better than one and we're begging the mayor to let us help. He won’t let us," said Mallard.
The culture of the Charleston Fire Department, also called into question by this new report, a culture some council members say needs to change for the entire city.
Chief Rusty Thomas announced his retirement yesterday. Mayor Riley says the decision had nothing to do with the reports release.
City council will get a chance to meet with the investigators tomorrow and Saturday to ask specific questions about that very lengthy report.
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