Charleston fire chief to retire after 3 years

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The man who became chief of the Charleston Fire Department after the city suffered through the trauma of losing nine firefighters in a furniture store blaze is retiring next winter.

Mayor Joe Riley said in a memo to City Council on Wednesday that Chief Thomas Carr plans to retire March 1.

Carr suffers from neurological disease called Multiple Systems Atrophy that has symptoms like Parkinson’s disease.

He was fire chief of Montgomery County, Md., when he was selected from a field of nearly 140 people for the Charleston job three years ago.

Carr was chosen a few months after the retirement of long-time chief Rusty Thomas who was in charge during the 2007 blaze at the Sofa Super Store where nine firefighters perished.