CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — “It was his life and it took his life,” Paula Kelsey of Washington said Tuesday of her son Mark Kelsey.

The 1985 Washington High School graduate was one of nine firefighters who died in a furniture store fire late Monday evening in Charleston, S.C.

Kelsey, 40, was an engineer with the Charleston Fire Department. Paula Kelsey said her son started firefighting in the Navy and had been on the Charleston force for 11 years. He was also a captain on the Ashley River Volunteer Fire Department.

“He loved what he did,” Mrs. Kelsey said Tuesday as she traveled to Charleston with Mark’s two brothers, Lee and Tom, also Washington residents. “He died a hero. Fifteen firefighters went in and nine came out in body bags.”

Paula Kelsey said it was a fear she had lived with for years, but fighting fires was what her son wanted to do. She said preliminary plans were to return Mark Kelsey to Washington for services and burial following a service in Charleston.

The other eight firefighters were also being remembered by family, friends and coworkers Tuesday.