THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504230033
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
Anyone who wears the uniform of an out-of-town firefighter must be careful about what they ask for in this city. Chances are they'll get it.
One member of Virginia Task Force 2, a regional search-and-rescue team, mused aloud Friday that he'd like a pizza for breakfast after finishing a 12-hour shift clearing rubble in the bombed-out high-rise. In minutes, a piping hot pepperoni pie was plopped on his plate.
Another mentioned that his back was stiff from manhandling huge slabs of concrete in the increasingly futile search for survivors in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. In marched a contingent of volunteers with kneading fingers who wouldn't leave him alone until every tense muscle was softened.
``You have to be careful what you say,'' said Navy firefighter John Meagher, part of the 56-member, federally certified urban search-and-rescue crew that arrived late Thursday from Hampton Roads. ``If you ask for something, you'll get four of them.''
The cavernous Myriad Convention Center, a downtown arena about the size of Scope, is where four of six Federal Emergency Management Agency crews are staying, including the Virginia Beach contingent.
On Saturday, residents of the city and suburbs transformed it into a combination buffet-style restaurant, department store, massage parlor and laundry service.
A cluster of folding tables at one end was packed with clothes, rain gear, socks and underwear donated by local businesses and residents. Firefighters from Hampton Roads, Los Angeles, Maryland and New York picked through the offerings like shoppers at a sidewalk sale.
Local television stations have spearheaded donation drives to provide firefighters and rescue workers with warm, dry clothes to replace the searchers' togs dampened by heavy showers Saturday.
At the center's other side was a buffet line so long it took more than 15 volunteer attendants to dish out an abundance of fried chicken, roast beef, green beans and fresh pastries.
Nearby was a makeshift convenience store where firefighters were handed toothpaste, eye drops, shaving cream and cold medicine. And volunteers wearing cornflower-blue ribbons of hope combed the smattering of tables where the firefighters sat and watched television news updates on the disaster, making sure coffee cups and bellies stayed full.
``The only word I can use to describe these people is `family,' '' Meagher said. ``We went downtown, and even the bums are nice.''
The outpouring of heartland hospitality has overwhelmed firefighters and rescuers from Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News and the Navy who are among those charged with the grim task of finding victims of Wednesday's terror bombing.
At dawn Saturday, the Virginia team ended a rain-soaked 14-hour shift inside the rubble-strewn, swaying shell of the blasted building and returned to the convention center.
Members of the team found their Army-style cots made up like beds, with mints on the pillows.
The treatment, local volunteers said, is the only way they know to repay the out-of-state crews.
``When you see the devastation on television and you see dead babies being carried out of the building, it makes you want to cry,'' said Allen Wiederstein, a businessman who lives in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond. ``So I come down here and volunteer. It's good therapy. People around the country are watching us and asking, `What is in Oklahoma?' '' His answer: ``Good people, like this.''
Oklahomans were torn Saturday between anger and appreciation - boiling rage at the 27-year-old man arrested and suspected of participating in the deadly attack, and sincere appreciation for the firefighters and rescue workers toiling in the nine-story downtown tomb.
``This is our home, and these wonderful people have come here to help us, so we want to do what we can to help them,'' said Margaret Wilson, an Oklahoma City nanny who helped pass out rain gear at the maze of folding tables.
``We're just glad they're here to help our guys, because our guys are in total shock,'' said Wilson's sister-in-law, Kim Pfaff, a housewife and mother.
Wilson and Pfaff are among the 444,719 residents of this city, whose downtown appears strikingly similar to Norfolk's business center. There's a knot of high-rise office buildings and apartments flanked by attractions and amenities for Oklahoma City's relatively young population - the average age is under 33.
On Friday, hundreds of residents filtered onto downtown streets for the first time to see the devastation. Cab drivers say they have had unprecedented business. Many said they have been hired for days at a stretch to ferry network news crews.
At the downtown's center is the federal building, once a contemporary concrete-and-glass government center - now a shattered shell.
It has become a symbol of tragedy and heroism to the city's residents.
Many have praised the FEMA crews for doing what they themselves could not do.
``I'll stand here until my legs fall off,'' said Rachel Kohr, a child-care provider who worked the weekend buffet line, ``but I couldn't go in there. I was OK until I saw them taking out the children. That hit close to home. That was too much.''
The Virginia search crew is scheduled to stay until at least Monday, and possibly for an additional week, supervisors said.
They are working 12-hour shifts, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. The off time is spent in the convention center, where they are treated as heroes.
``If they are willing to leave their families for a week and help us, it's the least I can do to leave mine for a few hours and help them,'' said Joe Wallace, a businessman from the suburb of Yukon. ``They don't know how much we appreciate them.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
Master firefighter Paul Pureza of Va. Beach.
KEYWORDS: BOMBS EXPLOSIONS FATALITIES TERRORISM
OKLAHOMA CITY RELIEF by CNB