driveway was growing hot beneath his feet and he heard sirens coming, saw the fire trucks flashing lights. Hooded men with masks ran straight for the burning house, and Neil yelled, “I got them. I got them all. There’s no one inside.”
The fire department took over with Neil and Janet and Ed and Pat following the firefighters every move as the professionals fought the flames for more than two hours. That’s when night left and it appeared the last ember had been drowned. The sun came up and everyone could see the mess.
* * *
The Armstrongs, the Whites, and the other neighbors got busy. Even some firefighters stayed to help rescue what could be salvaged, and together they moved everything into the Whites’ yard and under their carport.
* * *
Ed and Pat White took the Armstrongs in for a few days and neighbors and people Neil didn’t even know brought over toys for the boys. One had a playpen for Mark and another a crib for him to sleep in, while others stacked up diapers and things they said they didn’t need and Neil thought it was a tear he had just wiped from his cheek. The neighbors and other concerned people had brought all kinds of things the Armstrongs might need until they could move what had been worth saving into a nearby rental house.
It wasn’t lost on Neil that the fire could have been a catastrophe for his family if they had become asphyxiated before Janet woke up.
The scientist in him wouldn’t let him forget. Neil had to know what caused the fire. He had to know how to keep it from happening again.
During his urgent trips into the burning house to get Mark and Ricky, Neil had a sense the fire had started in their large living room with its high cathedral ceilings and beams.
The builder had used standard drywall-frame construction and the Armstrongs had the builder put paneling over the drywall.
Within weeks the panel began warping, curling up because of moisture, and the paneling no longer fit. Neil had the builder back, who admitted to his mistake, and his carpenters used a nail set to pound the finishing nails farther into the drywall and studs. The warped paneling simply fell off so the builder then put up sealed paneling and the Armstrongs thought their problem had been solved.
After the fire, inspectors found the cause instantly; one of the nails holding the warped paneling had been driven so deep into the wall it cut through the insulation of an electrical wire creating a trickle short. The small flow of electrical current built up the temperature in that location and when there was flammable heat, materials within the wall ignited. Unfortunately, at 3:45 in the morning.
The Armstrongs selected a different builder, a fire specialist, who built from the roof down instead of from the ground up. In the neighborhood, fire detectors were installed beginning with the Armstrongs and then neighbors Pat and Ed White, Faith and Ted Freeman, and Marilyn and Elliot See.
Within three years of the Armstrongs’ close call with their home, four astronauts from the neighborhood would be killed. Ted Freeman’s T-38 would fail him when it crashed at nearby Ellington Air Force Base October 31, 1964, and the prime crew for Gemini 9, Elliot See and Charles Bassett, were killed when their T-38 struck the roof of the building housing their spacecraft at the McDonnell plant in Saint Louis. Astronaut See was also the pilot for Neil Armstrong’s backup Gemini 5 crew, and the Armstrongs’ good friend and next-door neighbor astronaut Ed White would give his life in the Apollo 1 launchpad fire January 27, 1967.
It took the builders most of 1964 to rebuild the Armstrongs’ house. They moved in a couple of days before Christmas, but Santa didn’t bring anything resembling normalcy. Only time could bring them that.
The El Lago astronaut neighborhood began when the Whites and the Armstrongs arrived in the Houston area as members of the second group of astronauts. Ed and Neil bought three
The fire department took over with Neil and Janet and Ed and Pat following the firefighters every move as the professionals fought the flames for more than two hours. That’s when night left and it appeared the last ember had been drowned. The sun came up and everyone could see the mess.
* * *
The Armstrongs, the Whites, and the other neighbors got busy. Even some firefighters stayed to help rescue what could be salvaged, and together they moved everything into the Whites’ yard and under their carport.
* * *
Ed and Pat White took the Armstrongs in for a few days and neighbors and people Neil didn’t even know brought over toys for the boys. One had a playpen for Mark and another a crib for him to sleep in, while others stacked up diapers and things they said they didn’t need and Neil thought it was a tear he had just wiped from his cheek. The neighbors and other concerned people had brought all kinds of things the Armstrongs might need until they could move what had been worth saving into a nearby rental house.
It wasn’t lost on Neil that the fire could have been a catastrophe for his family if they had become asphyxiated before Janet woke up.
The scientist in him wouldn’t let him forget. Neil had to know what caused the fire. He had to know how to keep it from happening again.
During his urgent trips into the burning house to get Mark and Ricky, Neil had a sense the fire had started in their large living room with its high cathedral ceilings and beams.
The builder had used standard drywall-frame construction and the Armstrongs had the builder put paneling over the drywall.
Within weeks the panel began warping, curling up because of moisture, and the paneling no longer fit. Neil had the builder back, who admitted to his mistake, and his carpenters used a nail set to pound the finishing nails farther into the drywall and studs. The warped paneling simply fell off so the builder then put up sealed paneling and the Armstrongs thought their problem had been solved.
After the fire, inspectors found the cause instantly; one of the nails holding the warped paneling had been driven so deep into the wall it cut through the insulation of an electrical wire creating a trickle short. The small flow of electrical current built up the temperature in that location and when there was flammable heat, materials within the wall ignited. Unfortunately, at 3:45 in the morning.
The Armstrongs selected a different builder, a fire specialist, who built from the roof down instead of from the ground up. In the neighborhood, fire detectors were installed beginning with the Armstrongs and then neighbors Pat and Ed White, Faith and Ted Freeman, and Marilyn and Elliot See.
Within three years of the Armstrongs’ close call with their home, four astronauts from the neighborhood would be killed. Ted Freeman’s T-38 would fail him when it crashed at nearby Ellington Air Force Base October 31, 1964, and the prime crew for Gemini 9, Elliot See and Charles Bassett, were killed when their T-38 struck the roof of the building housing their spacecraft at the McDonnell plant in Saint Louis. Astronaut See was also the pilot for Neil Armstrong’s backup Gemini 5 crew, and the Armstrongs’ good friend and next-door neighbor astronaut Ed White would give his life in the Apollo 1 launchpad fire January 27, 1967.
It took the builders most of 1964 to rebuild the Armstrongs’ house. They moved in a couple of days before Christmas, but Santa didn’t bring anything resembling normalcy. Only time could bring them that.
The El Lago astronaut neighborhood began when the Whites and the Armstrongs arrived in the Houston area as members of the second group of astronauts. Ed and Neil bought three
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