Sometimes survival is a matter of blind luck. That was clearly true for at least a few people who were in the Alfred. P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City one fateful day. They just happened to be in the right spot at the precise moment when a bomb went off in the building at 9:02 A.M. on April 19,1995. Some people survived because they went to the bathroom or strolled over to the coffee machine or visited a friend down the hall.
　　Brian Espe couldn't believe his good fortune. At first, thinking the noise was an earthquake, he dove under his desk. When he got up to look around, everyone else was gone. The adjacent offices had crashed through the floor and landed several floors below. "MY surviving," Espe later said, "was nothing short of a miracle."
　　The monstrous explosion sliced the top of the federal building in half. People on one side lived while most of those on the other side tumbled several stories to their deaths in the rubble below. A secretary lived because she happened to be away from her desk. One man's life was saved because he had gone to the bathroom nobody else in his office was so lucky. Another man was spared because he left his office moments before the blast.
　　Other people survived only through the heroic efforts of firefighters, nurses, doctors, off-duty police officers, and paramedics who rushed to the scene to help. One person they saved was a 20-year-old woman named Dana Bradley. Rescuers found her crying in the rubble with the lower half of her leg pinned under tons of steel-reinforced concrete. She was trapped in a space so small doctors couldn't reach her. For two hours the doctors tried to figure out a way to save Bradley. Twice they had to flee the area for fear of another explosion or collapsing debris. "Please don't leave me!" She pleaded each time.
　　As time passed, it was clear something had to be done. Bradley was in bad shape: her blood pressure was dropping, and she was in the early stages of shock. Finally, the doctors decided to risk cutting away some of the steel-reinforcing rods that trapped her. That attempt could have caused a further collapse, perhaps killing Bradley and the doctors. Luckily, though, the cuts were made without mishap.
　　Even with the cut rods, however, there was still only enough room for one doctor, crawling on his hands and knees in about a foot of water, to reach Bradley. It was then that Bradley heard the doctors' grim assessment of her situation. They would have to cut off her lower leg if they were going to save her life. Bradley begged them to think of something else. But there were no other options. She screamed as the doctor removed her leg with a surgical saw and scissors but, at last, the doctors were able to pull her out of the building.
　　Later, Dana Bradley received more tragic news. Not only had she lost a leg in the explosion, she had also lost her mother and two children. They were among the 168 people who died in the bombing. Another 500 people were injured by falling glass, concrete, and other debris. One man was pierced in one hundred places by shards of glass. Doctor Richard Crook treated several people suffering from slashed throats and punctured lungs. "We saw ruptured eyeballs and rib fractures," he said. "One man was driving by the building when the bomb went off and had his windows open. It ruptured his eardrums."
　　The bomb did not discriminate between rich and poor, white and black, or young and old. The dead ranged in age from four months to 73 years old. The tales of individual grief, like that of Dana Bradley, pulled at the nation's heartstrings.
　　There was one image that truly captured the horror of this catastrophe. It was the photograph of firefighter Chris Fields emerging from the smoldering ruins with the lifeless body of one-year-old Baylee Almon in his arms. The little girl had just celebrated her birthday the day before. Her mother, Aren Almon, had dropped Baylee off at the second-floor day care center. When she first heard the blast, Aren thought it might be a clap of thunder. But then she saw it was the federal building. "We heard that they had found a baby with yellow booties," she said, "and I knew it was her."
　　The day care center took the full force of the explosion. Nineteen children in the nursery died. A few children, who somehow lived through the bombing, were found dazed and wandering about, crying frantically for their parents. Rescuers found severel limbs scattered among the toys and dolls. Some rescuers couldn't bear to look down at the children they cradled in their arms. One of the young victims had been decapitated; others were burned beyond recognition.
　　The sight of those children stunned everyone. Robert Buckner, a paramedic, expressed the outrage that most Americans felt. "It's all a nightmare," he said. "But the kids? Why anyone would want to do this to a place with a day care center is beyond comprehension."
　　One of the rescuers spotted Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, who had rushed to the scene to offer his support. "Find out who did this," the rescuer begged Keating. That desire was shared by all American. Along with the devastating grief, there was blind rage. Who could do such a thing?
　　The basic facts of the bombing soon became apparent. Somebody had parked a Ryder rental truck next to the Murrah Building. The innocent-looking truck contained 4,000 pounds of high explosives. The blast from these explosives was so powerful that it was felt 30 miles away. Some people in outlying towns such as Guthrie and Chandler thought it was a sonic boom. The bomb blew a crater 30 feet across and 8 feet deep in Northwest Fifth Street and sent a red-orange fireball into the sky. Cars parked along the street exploded. The explosion was so powerful that it killed two people in a building across the street
　　At first, many people assumed that the bombing was the work of foreign terrorists. But it wasn't. In this case, the terrorists were homegrown Americans. The man who actually drove the Ryder truck and set off the bomb was Timothy McVeigh, a bitter loner with a grudge against the U.S. government. Apparently he thought killing innocent men, women, and children was a good way to create a better world. McVeigh was later arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death. Another man, Terry Nichols, was also arrested and convicted for his part in planning the bombing. The Oklahoma City bombing was the worst case of domestic terrorism in the history of the United States. The senseless death of 168 people will not soon be forgotten. And people were outraged by the number of orphans created by the bombing. Ten children lost both their parents in the blast. More than 150 young people under the age of 23 lost a parent. Suck wounds never really heal.

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