Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 20, 1995 TAG: 9504200096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY LENGTH: Medium
``We're sure that that number will go up because we've seen fatalities in the building,'' Fire Chief Gary Marrs said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the deadliest U.S. bombing since a blast ripped through New York's financial district in 1920, killing 40 and injuring hundreds.
At least 200 people were injured - 58 critically, Marrs said - and scores were feared trapped in the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building more than nine hours after the bombing.
``Our firefighters are having to crawl over corpses in areas to get to people that are still alive,'' Assistant Fire Chief Jon Hansen said.
Their clothes torn off, victims covered in glass and plaster emerged bloodied and crying from the building, which looked as if a giant bite had been taken out of it, exposing its floors like a dollhouse.
Cables and other debris dangled from the floors like tangled streamers in a scene that brought to mind the car bombings at the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.
``I dove under that table,'' said Brian Espe, a state veterinarian who was giving a slide presentation on the fifth floor. ``When I came out, I could see daylight if I looked north and daylight if I looked west.''
Mayor Ron Norick said the blast was caused by a car bomb that left a crater 8 feet deep. He said the car had been outside, in front of the building.
``Obviously, no amateur did this,'' Gov. Frank Keating said. ``Whoever did this was an animal.''
Paramedic Heather Taylor said 17 children were dead at the scene. The children, all at the day-care center, ranged in age from 1 to 7, and some were burned beyond recognition, said Dr. Carl Spengler, one of the first doctors at the scene.
The explosion, similar to the terrorist car bombing that killed six people and injured 1,000 at New York's World Trade Center in 1993, occurred just after 9 a.m., when most of the more than 500 federal employees were in their offices.
The blast could be felt 30 miles away. Black smoke streamed across the skyline, and glass, bricks and other debris were spread over a wide area. The north side of the building was gone. Cars were incinerated on the street.
People, including parents whose children were in the building's day-care center, frantically searched for loved ones.
Christopher Wright of the Coast Guard, one of those helping inside the building, said rescuers periodically turned off their chain saws and prying tools to listen for pleas for help, ``but we didn't hear anything - just death.''
``You're helpless really, when you see people two feet away, you can't do anything, they're just smashed,'' he said.
``We're talking to victims who are in there and reassuring them that we're doing everything within the good Lord's power to reach them and get to them,'' the Fire Department's Hansen said. ``It's going to be a very slow process.''
Emergency crews set up a first-aid center near the federal building, and some of the injured sat on the sidewalks, blood on their heads or arms, awaiting aid. St. Anthony Hospital put out a call for more medical help, and at midday, posted a list of more than 200 names of injured so worried relatives could look for loved ones.
Carole Lawton, 62, a HUD secretary, said she was sitting at her desk on the seventh floor when ``all of a sudden the windows blew in. It got real dark and the ceiling just started coming down.'' She then heard ``the roar of the whole building crumbling.'' She managed to crawl down some stairs and was not injured.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB