LODD 360 - FIF002
Charleston, South Carolina

Louis Mark Mulkey – Captain 15

Louis Mark Mulkey – Captain 15 When Captain Louis Mulkey wasn't on duty at Coming Street Station 15, he often was coaching athletes at Summerville High School. Mulkey, 34, lived and breathed Green Wave sports, and firefighters openly joked that the 1991 Summerville graduate should quit fighting fires and succeed football coach John McKissick. Mulkey was a coach for the school's junior varsity football and basketball teams. McKissick said Mulkey would do anything for students. He always checked athletes' report cards and often accompanied students on recruiting trips. "We lost a good guy, a good friend, a good citizen and a good all-around guy," McKissick said. After the fire, Summerville athletes and fellow firefighters surrounded the home of Mulkey's parents, Ann and Mike Mulkey. Captain Jake Jenkins of Station 15 said Mulkey was known for his competitiveness. He wanted to win, but he always looked out for his team. "He was the bravest of the bravest," Jenkins said. Mulkey's mother phoned her son just before he was called to the Sofa Super Store fire. As news came out about the fire, she saw him on television. "Well, he's fine," she said to herself. And that's what she told people who called asking about her son, until an emergency services chaplain called her to Station 11 in West Ashley. Mulkey had 11 1/2 years of fire fighting experience and once saved a police officer who had collapsed in the line of duty. Mulkey leaves behind his mother and father; his wife, Lauren, of West Ashley, and a brother, Wayne, of Florida. "We never dreamed he would be a firefighter. One day he just took the job. He loves it," Ann Mulkey said, holding a tissue to her eyes. "That was his love."

- Charleston City Report