Almost three months to the day after nine Charleston, S.C. firefighters died fighting the Sofa Super Store blaze, the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped the city with $9,325 in related fines. A new deal struck between the city and SC OSHA cuts those fines by a third and exonerates the city from blame.

An SC OSHA spokeswoman said the agency would not discuss the terms of the settlement until it was approved by its review board chairperson. She did not say when that would likely happen. She said that by entering this agreement, the agency "is better able to assure greater safety and health protection to city firefighters than would be required by minimal compliance with OSHA regulations." She did not say how this would be so.

The Associated Press reports that the city agreed to pay $3,160 but does not have to admit to the truth of any allegation in the violations. The state had the authority to charge as much as $10,000 for the one willful and three serious violations. However, it did not seek the maximum penalty mostly because of the city's regulatory history. The city challenged all four violations, claiming they were wrongly issued.

"We wanted to move forward and we felt reaching this agreement was a way to move forward," Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley Jr. told AP.

However, the deal has left some crying foul.

“This settlement is a travesty. It’s an insult to the memory of the nine firefighters who died in the Sofa Super Store fire, to their families and to the firefighters who remain on the job,” said International Association of Fire Fighters President Harold Schaitberger. Part of what he took exception to was how the deal was reached.

“Despite the formal, written request of the firefighters union to South Carolina OHSA, and the mayor’s promise during the October release of the fire safety consultant report to involve employees (and their representatives) in addressing the department’s problems, not one of our members was asked to participate in this settlement process," he said. "And it remains a complete mystery as to how OSHA arrived at this settlement, especially as it relates to items that they incorrectly assume are being fixed…. Changing a single word – from ‘willful’ to ‘unclassified’ — doesn’t change the fact that the city is guilty and was found guilty by South Carolina OSHA of acting in a manner that the department leadership knew could kill firefighters."

SC OSHA also issued Sofa Super Store three citations and fines totaling $32,775. Those fines could have been as high as $63,000, but were reduced mostly due to the size of the employer. The most serious charge, carrying a $29,400 penalty, was leveled for the company having several doors bolted or padlocked. That case is still pending.