Within seconds of the explosion, people began running toward the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to help those injured in the blast. The emergency 911 system could hardly keep up with the calls that were coming in to report the bombing. Minutes after the blast, the first emergency personnel—firefighters, police officers, paramedics, doctors, and nurses—began showing up to help in any way they could. Using nothing but their hands, the rescuers started digging through the rubble, looking and listening for survivors, but in many cases, finding bodies instead.

Some people were trapped on the upper floors of the building, unable to get out because the stairwells were either damaged or blocked. Television stations broadcast dramatic rescues in which firefighters backed their ladder trucks up to the building and then climbed up their extended ladders to where the survivors were waiting and helped...