Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 11, 1990 TAG: 9005110011
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
Lt. Algernon Pope Gordon Jr., 34, helped evacuate other sailors from their quarters, which were jeopardized by the fire, the sailor told the Daily Press and Times-Herald of Newport News.
Gordon was the only person to die in the fire that began shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday in a boiler room.
Gordon was successful in rescuing one injured officer but later re-entered the smoky area and did not escape. "He might have thought somebody else was in there," the sailor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday after the ship returned to port. "He was an unselfish individual."
Navy spokesmen said Gordon died of smoke inhalation, but said they could not confirm the circumstances of his death.
Capt. Paul Hanley, a spokeman for the Atlantic Fleet headquarters in Norfolk, said "one of the exceptional efforts by the ship's crew was in pulling everybody out of the berthing areas. It was a very nasty fire."
In the blaze and subsequent firefighting, seven Conyngham crew members received burns, one received a head injury and four were treated for smoke inhalation, Navy spokesmen said. All were flown to shore ahead of the ship.
Six other sailors who had minor injuries stayed on the ship and went to the hospital after the ship arrived in Norfolk; three of them were hospitalized for observation.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Gordon, who was married with three children, was the son of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Montgomery, Ala. He was the ship's operations officer.
by CNB