Oklahoma City

Five Years After

Additional information on the Murrah Building bombing can be found on the Oklahoma City Fire Dept web site.

With these words, etched in brass above the gates of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the site of the former Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City is becoming a place for people to grieve, to reflect, and to remember the lives of 168 persons killed April 19, 1995. Five years after the most deadly terrorist act in modern American history, the site opens to the public on April 19, 2000.

In the immediate aftermath of the Murrah Building bombing, 9-1-1 Magazine joined numerous other trade magazines in the emergency services field to focus on the challenges faced by emergency responders and the local communications centers. 9-1-1 Magazine was the only publication to cover the entire gamut of the response - from the first USAR team called into Oklahoma City to reports from the communication consoles of each discipline involved in the response: fire, police, and EMS, and a look back on what has perhaps become the longest-lasting effect of the tragedy: the critical incident stress handled by responders and dispatchers alike.

In remembrance of the terrible tragedy of April 19, 1995, 9-1-1 Magazine features a look at Oklahoma City today in our March/April 2000 issue, how the community has handled the infamy of the bombing and the memorial due to open this year on April 19th. As a companion piece, we offer online our original coverage from our July/August and Sept/Oct 1995 issues. Some of the accompanying photos appear here for the first time.

Oklahoma City After-Action Report: CA Task Force 3 FEMA US&R Task Force 3 from California is a "rainbow team," managed by the Menlo Park Fire Protection District but comprised of civilian and fire service personnel from throughout California's Silicon Valley. They were among the eleven FEMA US&R Teams to be deployed to Oklahoma City. In our ongoing coverage of the Oklahoma City response in honor of the 5th Anniversary of the tragedy, we present the complete After-Action Report of CA-TF3. For more information on the FEMA US&R Task Forces see the profile in our Jan-Feb 1999 issue. More information on CA-TF3 can be found on their web site at www.usar.org