FE Volume 148 Issue 10

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Dispatch

Dispatch

OCFD Dispatch is staffed by 15 firefighters assigned to three 24-hour shifts, five people per shift. It has three radio consoles--two for dispatching and one supervisor console. Each console has four radio channels--a primary operating channel, two backup channels, and a mutual-aid channel, the communication channel for multiple agencies assigned to one incident. Console radio channels can be changed at any time with the push of a button. A message then is broadcast to all fire department rigs t
Firefighting
EMS Treatment and Transport

EMS Treatment and Transport

Ninety seconds after the explosion, EMSA had seven ambulances and two supervisor units staffed with 24 medical personnel (paramedics and EMTs) on the way to the site. Treatment of victims began within three minutes. The first seven ambulances were designated strictly as treatment units; this ensured that there would be enough personnel to begin immediate triage and treatment. (In a typical response, the operational plan would be one ambulance for treatment, one ambulance for transport.) No one
Fire EMSFirefighting
Pulled Out Alive: The Nancy Ingram Rescue

Pulled Out Alive: The Nancy Ingram Rescue

My family and I were planning to rest on April 19, 1995, after having buried my wife`s sister the day before. She died from burns that she and her six-year-old daughter had received when a stalking ex-boyfriend doused them with gasoline weeks before. Our niece survived. At 9:02 a.m., I heard the bomb blast, the house shook, and I knew something bad had happened. The TV news reported that the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building had just been blown up.
Technical Rescue
OCFD Logistics

OCFD Logistics

The logistics operation in the response to the April 19 bombing in Oklahoma City was extremely complicated and fragmented. While successful in that almost all equipment needs were met during the 17-day emergency operation, there were a number of lessons learned through trial and error that could have produced more efficiency.
Firefighting Equipment

More FE Volume 148 Issue 10

Rescue Command

Rescue Command

The Oklahoma City Fire Department (OCFD) instituted its incident management system during the initial stages of the incident. The Operations component of OCFD Incident Command (IC) was organized basically on two levels--the procurement of resources (manpower and equipment) and on-site strategic and tactical command, or the Rescue Command (RC), as it came to be known. Resources were handled through the IC post some three blocks away from the incident site. Decisions concerning resources were made
Technical Rescue
USAR workers at Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, 1995

The Oklahoma City Bombing: Report and Analysis

Read full coverage of the response to the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
MagazineTechnical Rescue
Treating the Mind: CISD

Treating the Mind: CISD

The Oklahoma City Fire Department Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team, in cooperation with the State Critical Incident Stress Management Team, set up and performed prebriefings, demobilizations, and defusings from April 19 through May 5, 1995. Both teams worked as one CISM system throughout the incident.
Firefighting
Tool Use

Tool Use

The first 12 hours on the scene of the Oklahoma City Bombing required extreme caution as well as proficiency in the application and use of the equipment. A misplaced aerial ladder against the side of an unstable floor, the cutting of structural sensitive rebar, ignition of flammable debris--any of these scenarios could have meant disaster for survivors and rescuers.
Firefighting
Explosion and Collapse: Disaster in Milliseconds

Explosion and Collapse: Disaster in Milliseconds

This article is excerpted from the white paper "The Bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building: A Failure Analysis," Failure Analysis Associates, Engineers and Scientists, Menlo Park, California.
HazmatTechnical Rescue
ANFO: The Tool of Destruction

ANFO: The Tool of Destruction

ANFO is an acronym for the most popular blasting agents in use today. It stands for ammonium nitrate, fuel oil; and it is a simple mixture of the two. Ammonium nitrate is an oxidizing agent that does more than just supply oxygen to support the combustion of a fuel--it also is itself an explosive substance. Since it is an oxidizer and a material that burns (explodes), this combination of two legs of the fire triangle (the third, of course, is energy) can prove deadly. Indeed, on occasion, ammoniu
Firefighter ToolsFirefighting Equipment
Report from Fire Chief

Report from Fire Chief

I was approximately six blocks from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building when the explosion rocked Oklahoma City. My first thoughts were, "What type of chemical or natural gas explosion occurred?"
Firefighting
First In: Actions of Engine Company 1

First In: Actions of Engine Company 1

We were just beginning our shift at Station 1 when the explosion occurred. It felt as though something had hit or landed on top of our fire station. A plane crashing into a building in downtown Oklahoma City, a natural gas explosion, or a tank explosion were scenarios that quickly came to my mind.
Fire EMSFirefighting

Rescue Operations: Doing Battle with the Building

Technical Rescue

Working with the Media

Fire EMSFirefighting

On-Site Amputation

Fire Department LeadershipFirefighting

Victims by the Hundreds: EMS Response and Command

Fire EMSFirefighting

FE Volume 148 Issue 10

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