Retired Turkish NASA engineer dies in house fire

Mrs. Akbay said she and "Ish" did everything together."

"We had the marriage I wish everybody could have," Mrs. Akbay said. "He never went to the store that he didn’t bring me back a present, and he never got tired of telling me he loved me."

The last words Mrs. Akbay heard her husband say were, "Linda, I can’t find you," over and over, Mrs. Akbay told police Sunday.

Akbay, 72, died when their home at 13852 Catawba Circle caught fire around midnight Sunday.

The Akbays had been at an awards celebration at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville on Saturday night and Akbay was about to come to bed with his wife when they heard something break downstairs.

Mrs. Akbay said she thought her husband followed her out of the house when she checked make sure her son Ryan, who lived with them, was not in the already-smoky home. When she realized he was not outside with her, she tried to go back for him.

"I said, ‘Ish, where are you?’" she said. "He said, ‘I can’t find you. I can’t hear you, Linda.’"

Akbay apparently became disoriented in the smoke and never found his way out of their bedroom, Mrs. Akbay said.

Once Mrs. Akbay was inside, she said, she became so overcome with smoke she barely could find the door to get back outside. She grabbed a water hose, turned on the water and pointed it toward the house in a futile attempt to douse some of the flames. She ran next door to awaken her neighbor, Peggy Atkins, who called 911.

"It didn’t take long for the house to become a flaming inferno," Atkins said. "It is such a tragedy. We felt so helpless, because there wasn’t anything we could do knowing he was in there. She was just doing good to get out of there herself."

Athens Fire Chief Cliff Christopher said the Athens Fire Department received a call about the fire at 12:22 p.m. and by the time the fire engine arrived on the scene 13 minutes later, the house was "totally involved."

Christopher said the three-story frame house burned quickly.

"With all that open space, the fire gets all the oxygen it needs," he said.

"We need a fire station closer to us," Atkins said. Despite that, she said local fire departments did a "super job" responding to the fire.

The City of Athens annexed Black’s Landing on the Tennessee River in the 1980s in an attempt to keep Decatur from annexing more areas of Limestone County. What was anticipated to be a commercial port instead became residential area of the city farthest away from police and fire protection.

Christopher said when grass fires have burned at Black’s Landing in the past, the Athens Fire Department has done what it did Sunday morning — call on nearby volunteer fire departments to help as well.

Christopher said two trucks from the Tanner Volunteer Fire Department, many of whose members were at the Truck and Tractor Pull State Championship at Tanner when the fire call came, arrived on the scene at the same time as the Athens Fire Department. Also responding were firefighters from the Clements, Piney Chapel and Owens Volunteer Fire Departments, Christopher said.

Christopher said response time makes "all the difference" in whether a fire can be controlled or not.

"We can’t do anything about the distance," Christopher said.

Officials found what appeared to be Akbay’s remains at 6 a.m. Sunday.

Firefighters continued to douse smoldering embers that threatened to flare up on Monday.

Christopher said the Alabama fire marshall is still investigating the cause of the fire. Anytime someone in Alabama dies in a fire, the fire marshall’s office investigates, Christopher said.

‘Super nice people’

Eight years ago, Mrs. Akbay convinced her husband, a native of Turkey, to move from Huntsville to their home on the Tennessee River.

"I told him when he was looking out on the Tennessee River, he was looking out on his Bosphorous," Mrs. Akbay said. This side was Europe, and the other side, with Solutia, was Asia."

Akbay moved to the United States when he was 17 years old. He learned English in America and enrolled at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He later transferred to the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, where he graduated. He became the president of the Jaycees in Chattanooga before moving to Huntsville for his work with NASA and an engineer named Werner Von Braun.

In his 31 years with NASA, he was there for all the "good stuff," Mrs. Akbay said — the Apollo flights and the first man on the moon.

Eighteen years ago, the Akbays met at United Singles in Huntsville. They married on May 6, 1986.

Scherff called the Akbays "super nice people."

"We adore them," Scherff said. "We are sick for them."

Atkins said the Akbays had photos of Akbay with Alabama governors and U.S. legislators.

"He loved remembering the glory days with the astronauts," Atkins said. "He loved that part of his life."

Akbay, who was very involved with Space Camp in Huntsville, helped establish space camps abroad, including one in his homeland.

Atkins said Akbay loved to travel and "he enjoyed his relationship with Linda."

A family member said the Akbays were "really like soulmates."

"He never did any harm to anybody," Mrs. Akbay said. "He was so warm, tender and giving."

The Akbay’s family said several people in the neighborhood, as well as their cousin, Darryl Norman, helped as they could.

"It has been a family effort," Mrs. Akbay said, adding that her husband’s stepchildren were as supportive as his own. "This husband bridged the family."