Phoenix fire chief recalls Oklahoma City bombing 30 years later

PHOENIX — The nation is remembering the victims and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing, 30 years after what remains the worst homegrown terrorist attack in the United States.

April 19, 1995, is a day Phoenix Fire Battalion Chief John Mure still remembers all too well.

“It was a mess,” Mure said.

Mure said he was on duty in Ahwatukee when a truck filled with a deadly mix of agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel and other chemicals exploded in Oklahoma City.

“We got the call that morning and we were in Oklahoma working at the site that night,” Mure said.

The site was the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Most of the structure had been reduced to rubble.

“If you can imagine a high-rise building cut in half, and half of it on the ground and half of it still standing with all the chairs and desks and things hanging out and blowing in the wind,” Mure said.

Mure said he worked 12-hour shifts amongst search and rescue teams.

“We’re going through debris, finding portions of bodies, sometimes whole bodies, and searching, trying to find somebody who’s still alive trapped in a void,” Mure said.

Unfortunately, Mure’s team didn’t find any survivors.

“They were sitting there enjoying their life, doing their daily routine, and it was instantly stopped,” Mure said.

The bombing killed 168 people, including 19 children who were in the building’s daycare center. Hundreds more were injured.

“30 years ago, I thought I was going to have a very different day when I woke up,” Former President Bill Clinton said.

Clinton returned to Oklahoma City for the 30th Anniversary memorial, where he recalled a day of his presidency that he said he will never forget.

“That bomb profoundly shook the country,” Clinton said.

The bomber, Tim McVeigh, was found about two hours after the attack. Investigators later learned McVeigh and his co-conspirators planned and practiced the bombing in Kingman.

“They would blow things up in the Arizona desert,” FBI Special Agent Kenneth Williams told 12News in 2018.

As another decade has come and gone since the attack, Mure chooses to remember the good in people rather than the bad.

“The streets were lined up with people trying to hand us sandwiches, hand us food or something to drink,” Mure said.

Mure hopes people will continue to remember the strength and resilience of Oklahoma City.

“We came and did our thing and left. They had to live with that for a long, long time,” Mure said. “Keep them in your hearts and prayers and stuff even to this day.”