On January 27, 1967, the three astronauts of the Apollo 4, were doing a test countdown on the launch pad. Gus Grissom was in charge. His crew wereEdward H. White, the first American to walk in space, and Roger B. Chaffee, anaval officer going up for the first time. 182 feet below, R.C.A technicianGary Propst was seated in front of a bank of television monitors, listening tothe crew radio channel and watching various televisions for important activity.Inside the Apollo 4 there was a metal door with a sharp edge. Each timethe door was open and shut, it scraped against an environmental control unitwire. The repeated abrasion had exposed two tiny sections of wire. A sparkalone would not cause a fire, but just below the cuts in the cable was a lengthof aluminum tubing, which took a ninety-degree turn. There were hundreds ofthese turns in the whole capsule. The aluminum tubing carried a glycol coolingfluid, which is not flammable, but when exposed to air it turns to flammablefumes. The capsule was filled with pure oxygen in an effort to allow theastronauts to work more efficiently. It also turns normally not so flammableitems to highly flammable items. Raschel netting that was highly flammable inthe pure oxygen environment was near the exposed section of the wires.At 6:31:04 p.m. the Raschel netting burst into an open flame. A secondafter the netting burst into flames, the first message came over the crew'sradio channel: "Fire," Grissom said. Two Seconds later, Chaffee said clearly,"We've got a fire in the cockpit." His tone was businesslike (Murray 191).There was no camera in the cabin, but a remote control camera, if zoomedin on the porthole could provide a partial, shadowy view of the interior of thespace craft. There was a lot of motion, Propst explained, as White seemed tofumble with something and then quickly pull his arms back, then reach out again. Another pair of arms came into view from the left, Grissom's, as the fla...
