
DATE: Wednesday, November 12, 1997          TAG: 9711120509

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NAOMI AOKI, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   77 lines

CHESAPEAKE FIRE LEAVES A MAN DEAD

When neighbors saw clouds of black smoke pouring from Bob Adams' house late Tuesday afternoon, they feared the 52-year-old man must be trapped inside.

Neighbors screamed, hoping to rouse Adams. One man tried the front door, but the smoke was so thick he could only see the floor. Another broke a window in the back of the house and emptied a small fire extinguisher into the kitchen.

But flames and smoke had already filled the one-story house in the 1500 block of Laurel Ave. in the city's Norfolk Highlands section.

``The house was gone. The whole thing was flaming,'' said David Caldwell, the neighbor who broke the kitchen window.

When firefighters arrived around 4 p.m., 10 minutes after they had been called, neighbors said flames were shooting out of the front door and the rafters. The vinyl siding was bubbling and peeling and the windows were cracking from the heat.

By 4:30, neighbors knew their worst fear had come true.

Firefighters found the body of a man in the kitchen.

``It's a terrible thing. He's in there,'' said Sam Gayner, who lives next door, to another neighbor.

Officials have not identified the body, said Battalion Chief Henry Deal. But neighbors and family said they believe the man who died in the fire is Adams. They said he does not drive and is often home, watching television in the kitchen.

The fire, which destroyed the house, started on top of the kitchen stove, Deal said. It took the firefighters 10 minutes to bring the blaze under control. The heat from the fire destroyed the protective clothing of two firefighters, leaving one with first- and second-degree burns on his shoulder, Deal said.

Neighbors, who lined the street in the neighborhood of neatly kept one-story brick and vinyl-sided homes, watched as firefighters pried loose shingles and boards from the house and hosed it down.

They said Adams, a carpenter, had lived in the house for more than 20 years caring for his aging mother, who was blind and in a wheelchair during the last months of her life. She died in September.

``His mother just died. He hadn't even had time to snap back from it,'' said Sylvia Rose, who has lived across the street from Adams for seven years.

Adams had just helped fix the roof on her house, Rose said.

``He helped his family, he helped his neighbors, he helped everybody,'' said Adams' oldest brother, Donald, who stayed at the scene in hopes of finding out how the fire had started.

Adams, one of nine children, has a son in the Army in North Carolina, a daughter in Norfolk and another daughter in Chesapeake. He has four young grandchildren, who he often baby-sat, Donald Adams said.

He was planning to move to North Carolina Sunday to work with another brother and nephew, Donald Adams said.

``When I heard about the fire, I felt a big pressure on my chest,'' his brother said.

``He was the friendliest of all of us.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

NEIGHBORS TRY TO SAVE VICTIM

BOB MATTHEWS SR./Tidewater Fire Photographers Association

David Caldwell, a neighbor who lives across the street, tries to put

out the Tuesday afternoon blaze with a garden hose.

L. TODD SPENCER

An in-law of Bob Adams, believed to be the victim, is overcome with

emotion after reaching the scene of the Tuesday blaze on Laurel

Avenue in Norfolk Highlands.

Chesapeake firefighters work on the roof to knock down the fire at a