Apr 12 2008
Widow of Firefighter Sues Sofa Store
The widow of Brad Baity, one of the nine Charleston firefighters killed in last year’s Sofa Super Store blaze, filed a lawsuit Friday alleging that the store, several furniture manufacturers and other businesses are negligent in her husband’s death.The families of two other firefighters who perished June 18 — Capt. Billy Hutchinson and firefighter Melvin Champaign — filed similar wrongful-death lawsuits last year.
The suits target the site’s owners, the manufacturers of the furniture in the store, a building contractor and the companies that built the fire doors that investigators later determined had malfunctioned.
“Brad Baity’s family is looking for more answers as to the factors that contributed to his death in June 2007,” said Motley Rice attorney Kevin Dean. “As they continue to grieve over the loss of their loved one, they seek accountability as well as a hope for change in industry standards to prevent others from having to face a similar tragedy.”
Mr. Baity died doing his duty as a firefighter. Clearly, it is a dangerous job full of excessive risk and deaths on the job are to be expected. Nobody is to blame for Mr. Baity’s death. I find this lawsuit on behalf of his family to be despicable. His family is trying to cash in on his death, plain and simple.
Your comment on here and the P&C is despicable. Rusty Thomas is the one to blame due to the fact he has no formal training and sent the men in to a death trap. The Charleston Fire Department is one of the worst on the east coast when it comes to their command staff! I am behind all of the law suits…and am waiting on the day Rusty Thomas and Larry Garvin are charged with 9 wrongful death suits! Good day sir!
OK, if it turns out that there was some defect in anything that specifically led to the cause of their deaths then by all means sue the pants off of said person but seriously? Suing the furniture manufacturers??? They weren’t even in the same state at the time of the fire! This is just an attempt to get paid…
But if they’re like alot of fire fighters in the south the benefits probably sucked and there was no group life insurance policy they could afford. Then it goes back to the brothers and sisters at the FD to help out, not some corporation who was completely innocent but such is the mind of a trial lawyer!!!