 It took five minutes for the pad workers to open all three hatch layers , and they could not drop the inner hatch to the cabin floor as intended , so they pushed it out of the way to one side . Although the cabin lights remained lit , they were at first unable to find the astronauts through the dense smoke . As the smoke cleared , they found the bodies , but were not able to remove them . The fire had partly melted Grissom 's and White 's nylon space suits and the hoses connecting them to the life support system . Grissom had removed his restraints and was lying on the floor of the spacecraft . White 's restraints were burned through , and he was found lying sideways just below the hatch . It was determined that he had tried to open the hatch per the emergency procedure , but was not able to do so against the internal pressure . Chaffee was found strapped into his right @-@ hand seat , as procedure called for him to maintain communication until White opened the hatch . Because of the large strands of melted nylon fusing the astronauts to the cabin interior , removing the bodies took nearly 90 minutes . 
