Moving Company in Charleston

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Friday marked the 14th anniversary of the Sofa Superstore tragedy which claimed the lives of nine Charleston firefighters. Members of the Charleston Fire Department stood watch for 24 hours to commemorate the anniversary and honor the Charleston Nine.

A ceremony was held at the Charleston Nine Memorial in West Ashley Friday evening. More than a hundred people turned out to remember the fallen heroes.

“Today means a lot because for us it happened yesterday, it didn’t happen 14 years ago,” said David Griffin, CFD Shift Commander.

Fourteen years ago, Griffin was there — a new firefighter battling the blaze at the Sofa Superstore. He said it was his first time sent to a real fire scene.

“I stood right over there in front of a pump panel not knowing what I was doing. A 27-year-old young man, I thought I knew everything, and I obviously didn’t,” he said. “There was a lot of us that experienced that, this is kind of a slap in the face. It wakes you up to realize this is a very serious job.”

Griffin said he still deals with painful memories then and now but has learned over the years to lean into the pain, rather than fight it.

“I guess 'healed' would be a strong word because a lot of us are still suffering with it,” he said. “You know for me, I’m on shift today and I stood at my desk for an hour and just cried while I was doing my work. It’s really hard because it hits you at different times, but I think that makes us who we are and it’s why we do what we do.”

Bryce Mulkey’s brother, Louis Mulkey, died in the fire. He attended the ceremony with several other family members.

“It’s always tough coming over here,” Bryce Mulkey said. “It’s almost like a reunion with a lot of people. You come back and see family and friends and some of the other families from the nine and catch up and take a little bit of solace and inspiration from that, so it helps quite a bit.”

Charleston Fire Chief Daniel Curia was living in North Carolina when the tragedy happened. He said the lessons learned created a ripple effect through the entire American fire service.

“The sacrifice was enormous, but it changed everything,” Curia said. “Everything from how we command fires, to how we staff fires, to standardizing strategies and tactics. The entire fire service has embraced what came out of this fire.”

The ceremony has been held at the Charleston Nine Memorial since 2008. It’s located at the site of the former Sofa Superstore. The nine monuments are placed where the body of each firefighter was found on June 18, 2007.

CHARLESTON S.C. – The Battery secured their first home victory of the 2021 season with a 2-1 win over Miami FC in front of another sold-out Patriots Point. Charleston-native Joel Bunting scored what proved to be the match-winning goal in the 50th minute to break the 1-1 tie. The goal was the first of Bunting’s professional career, who also made his first professional start.

First Half:

Charleston returned to play in their first home game since May 23 and featured a 3-5-2 formation for the first time this year. Miami struck first in the 7th minute when Lamar Walker’s free kick weaved through the fray and past goalkeeper Joe Kuzminsky into the net. Miami had a flurry of early chances with Walker and Callum Chapman-Page providing shots in the first 20 minutes of play.

The Battery struck back in the 24th minute when Zeiko Lewis sent a scissor kick past the Miami defense to even the score 1-1. Lewis was assisted by Burke Fahling, who crossed the ball into the center of the box for Zeiko to level the terms. The goal was Lewis’ second of the season. Charleston had a chance to take the lead in the 41st minute when Angelo Kelly had the ball in a dangerous spot in front of the net, but his shot went over the crossbar.

Second Half:

Charleston entered the second half with energy as Lewis sent a shot in the 47th minute but his attempt went wide. The Battery took the lead in the 50th minute when rookie Joel Bunting scored his first professional goal to go ahead 2-1. Bunting was assisted by AJ Paterson, who redirected the ball at the goalline to Bunting after Kelly crossed the ball into the 6-yard box.

The Battery defense held their ground in the face of a resilient Miami squad to preserve the lead. Charleston goalkeeper Joe Kuzmisky saved a threatening shot from Adonijah Reid in the 64th minute, and the Battery blocked Lamar Walker’s 65th-minute shot. The Battery almost doubled their lead in the 76th minute when Leland Archer sent in a dangerous header, but his attempt missed to the right. Charleston stayed resolute to maintain the 2-1 lead for their first home victory of the season.

Battery forward Joel Bunting discussed coming back from down a goal.

”We didn’t start well, we went down one-zero, but we managed to work our way back and put some pressure on them,” said Bunting. “Zeiko got the goal back and he gave us a lot of energy going into the second half.”

Making his first professional start, the Charleston native was excited to provide a show for his old Bishop England teammates.

”It’s surreal and I really can’t explain it, two months ago I wasn’t even on the team. Just being from Charleston and working my way up, it’s amazing,” said Bunting. “AJ had the great cross and it was just a reaction, right off my knee and into the back of the net.”

Battery Head Coach Michael Anhaeuser discussed the team’s start in the first half and was proud of their resilience.

”We go down a goal, you know, they get that free kick. It’s a little unlucky,” said Anhaeuser. “But credit to the guys coming back. Zeiko Lewis picking up a fantastic finish to make it one-one and then we settled down.”

“We came out the second half really sharp, and for Joel to get his first goal in front of the home crowd was incredible,” said Anhaeuser. “So, that’s an amazing result for us to get your first one at home, and that leads to bigger and better things.”

Friday’s game was the first match at Patriots Point since May 23 after consecutive postponements at home but Anhaeuser said the team was glad to be back out there.

”You know, the guys have been sitting in the locker room way more than playing, I’ll tell you that’s why we came out a little rusty at the beginning,” said Anhaeuser. “But I thought they did a great job, they’re so happy to play. And now we’re going to have more games [played] every week. Two games a week, the guys just love to play.”

The Battery now prepare to get a win back over Charlotte Independence on Wednesday, June 23.

”We’ll give [the team] a day off to get the mentality down and then we come in Sunday to get prepared for Charlotte,” said Anhaeuser. “Charlotte’s going to be a tough game, so we have to be on our toes and drive the same way we did tonight.”

The Battery will travel to the Sportsplex at Matthews to face Charlotte Independence on Wednesday night before returning to Patriots Point Saturday, June 26 to welcome Loudoun United FC. Tickets for Saturday’s contest are still available on SeatGeek.

Walking 100 or more holes of golf over three days is an exhausting task for players of any age, even if they’re young and strong and usually spend countless hours on the course practicing.

It’s been a long grind this week at Cedarbrook Country Club for Conor McGrath, 21, and Jack Irons, 19, the finalists in the 121st BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship who will compete Saturday over 36 holes in their bid to become a first-time champion.

McGrath, a Huntingdon Valley Country Club member who is entering his senior season at Temple, has played 99 holes – 36 in Monday’s stroke-play qualifying, 32 in his first two matches Tuesday and 31 Wednesday in his quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

Irons, a member of Little Mill Country Club who lives in Naples, Fla., but spends his summers in South Jersey, has logged 107 holes -- 38 of them coming Tuesday when he had to go the distance in the first round and two extra holes in the second, before playing “only” 33 holes Wednesday.

“It’s been a really long week so far,” McGrath said Friday. “Six rounds of golf in three days is a lot of golf. But we’ve had some success this week and made it to the finals so I’m feeling good. I’m excited to just have the opportunity to give myself a chance to win it, so we’ll see what happens on Saturday.”

Irons, who graduated this spring after taking online courses but said he has chosen to take a gap year and is “keeping all options open” on college, carried his own bag Tuesday and Wednesday, adding to his fatigue.

“It’s been grueling walking up these hills,” he said Wednesday after his semifinal match. “I had a caddie in stroke play but I couldn’t get one (Tuesday or Wednesday). I felt a little bit calmer (Wednesday) and played from tee to green a little bit better. It’s been fun, but it’s been a grind.”

McGrath is coming off his best season at Temple. He led the Owls in stroke average (73.61) and paced his team in scoring in five of their seven tournaments. Last month he advanced past the first round of qualifying for the U.S. Open.

He said he has practiced some during his two off days to “just keep the feel that I’ve had this whole week, kind of keeping up that momentum with my game.”

“I think that it’s pretty important to definitely get some swings in and touch up the short game a little bit,” McGrath said, “but at the same time really just try and relax and trust that the work I put in prior to the event was enough to start to get me rolling.”

Irons appears to have been busier, playing in a club championship match at Little Mill on Thursday and putting in long hours of practice Friday.

Irons will be traveling after Saturday’s match. He will begin play Monday in the Western Junior Amateur in Lake Forest, Ill. He participated last March at the Azalea Invitational in Charleston, S.C., where he finished in a tie for 30th over 72 holes.

He said his goal is to try to continue to play in national events, but he has enjoyed competing in his fourth Philadelphia Amateur.

“I’ve always wanted to compete in this for a while now,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest tournaments in Philadelphia. I think it’s probably the most prestigious amateur event around here so I just tried to get into it and then go far into match play. That’s the goal of mine and it’s been awesome.”

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Lawmakers from across the state were in the downtown Charleston on Friday to hear from small businesses about how opportunity zones are helping to revitalize part of the Lowcountry.

The Charleston Tech Center, which opened this year, is part of U.S. Senator Tim Scott’s ‘Opportunity Zones’ legislation, which is designed to bring money into impoverished areas and help turn things around.

Sen. Scott hosted former Speaker Paul Ryan along with US Representative Joe Wilson (2nd District), US Representative Ralph Norman (5th District), and staff from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office during a trip to the tech center Friday afternoon.

They met for a discussion with some of the 37 companies who are now using the Charleston Tech Center.

“One of the things that we continue to do, as we travel the country, we’ve been doing tours now for almost four years, and we try to tell people – what we try to tell people is if it’s not working for the citizens, I will kill this legislation. I won’t wait for somebody else to do it,” said Sen. Scott.

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said he worked with Congressman and later Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Jack Kemp, many years ago on similar enterprise zones without much legislative success.

“I think the big benefit of Senator Scott‘s legislation is it’s brought tens of billions of dollars of capital into the poorest communities of America. That’s money that would’ve never come otherwise. It’s also brought in the private sector and the public sector to focus on getting people out of poverty, getting revitalized in these poor communities. So, this is an idea a lot of people fought for a long time. Tim Scott actually got it done.”

While he has traveled the country looking at opportunity zone projects, we asked Senator Scott, how did it feel to be looking at the results of his legislation just two miles from where he grew up.

“Well, that’s exciting,” he said. “This is probably more of an emotional time than when I’m in California or Pennsylvania or Colorado or Florida because I understand this is an area that’s always had high potential, and most people saw it at risk or nothing. This is never been nothing- it’s always been something. Someone lived here, someone worked here.”

Sen. Scott says they have seen less than 5% of gentrification in the opportunity zones. He believes this is proof the plan is working.

“This has to be a win-win; a win for investors, a win for citizens, and a win for America and so far, so good,” he said.

This is a 92,000-sq-ft building, but the developers of the Charleston Tech Center say they have additional land ready to be used to build another similar building in the future.

After a dip in the number of people getting COVID-19 vaccines in South Carolina in early June, the pace of shots in arms has picked up slightly through the middle of the month.

At a low, about 71,000 people got a COVID-19 vaccine in the week leading up to June 3. The two following weeks saw the number of shots delivered speed up to about 100,000.

The Post and Courier | mary katherine wildeman

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With 40 percent of the population fully vaccinated, South Carolina remains months away from any hopes of reaching herd immunity, generally accepted to be in the 70 percent to 80 percent range.

Statewide numbers

New cases reported: 120 confirmed, 70 probable.

Total cases in S.C.: 492,667 confirmed, 102,781 probable.

Percent positive: 2 percent.

New deaths reported: 1 confirmed, 1 probable.

Total deaths in S.C.: 8,618 confirmed, 1,174 probable.

Percent of ICU beds filled: 70 percent.

S.C. residents vaccinated

DHEC’s vaccine dashboard shows 46.7 percent of the state’s residents have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Hardest-hit areas

In the total number of newly confirmed cases, Florence County (15), Charleston County (14) and Greenville County (11) saw the highest totals.

What about tri-county?

Charleston County had 14 new cases on June 18, while Berkeley County had seven and Dorchester County had five.

Deaths

The death from COVID-19 confirmed June 18 was a person between age 18 and 34.

Hospitalizations

Of the 142 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of June 18, 34 were in the ICU and 17 were using ventilators.

What do experts say?

A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases on June 15 offers new evidence that COVID-19 arrived in the United States weeks before the first case was confirmed in Washington state on Jan. 21, 2020.

Researchers looked for antibodies in about 24,000 people who voluntarily gave blood samples for study during the early weeks of the U.S.′ epidemic in January, February and March of last year.

Of those thousands, seven were identified as having a positive test before the first confirmed case in their respective states, according to the study.

“Our findings indicate SARS-CoV-2 infections weeks prior to the first recognized cases in 5 U.S. states,” researchers wrote.

The conclusion should come as little surprise, given it has been widely theorized that undiagnosed coronavirus disease cases were circulating sooner than Jan. 21, 2020.