A seminal event in the history of human spaceflight occurred on the evening of Jan 27, 1967, at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) when a fire ignited inside the Apollo 204 spacecraft during ground test activities. The 100 percent oxygen atmosphere, flammable materials and a suspected electrical short created a fire which quickly became an inferno. Virgil Grissom, Edward White II, and Roger Chaffee (the prime crewmembers for Apollo mission AS-204 — later designated Apollo 1) perished in the flames before the hatch could be opened.