LODD 360 - FIF002
Charleston, South Carolina

Bradford Rodney "Brad" Baity
Engineer 19


Engineer Bradford “Brad” Baity’s home town is Mocksville, NC. How he'll be remembered: As a soft-spoken man with a dry sense of humor who was quick to help others, friends and strangers alike. Brad Baity was an engineer at Station 16, a soft-spoken and smart man who sometimes impressed his buddies with his computer skills. Baity, 37, had been with the department for nine years, driving Engine 19 for Captain William "Billy" Hutchison. "He was always seeking knowledge, trying to learn new things," said Derek Noffsinger, one of his colleagues at the station. Sometimes, Baity could be found pecking on his laptop computer, doing virtual tours of faraway countries. "He would talk about how he had just visited the historic sites in Greece and Rome," Noffsinger said. Baity wasn't one to bend your ear. Amid the bustle and bravado of a typical fire station, he spoke in a soft voice. He was an aggressive firefighter. "It didn't make a difference to Brad Baity. Whatever the task was, he did it. "Like many firefighters, Baity had a second job. For the last three years, he had worked as a stagehand at the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, the North Charleston Coliseum and other venues around the area, said Mike Coffey, a member of IATSE Local 333, a union that represents stagehands and technicians. "Brad was new, but he was always watching and learning," said Coffey, a retired Charleston firefighter himself with more than three decades of service. Sometimes, he and Baity and another firefighter/stagehand, James "Earl" Drayton, would get together and talk shop. "You get firemen together anywhere, and you're going to start telling stories," Coffey said. "That's the way firemen are." Drayton also died in Monday's fire. Baity lived in a quiet neighborhood off the bustle of S.C. Highway 61, where he leaves behind his wife, Heather, a daughter, Mariah, and a son, Noah.
- Charleston City Report