Kevin G. Thompson and Andy Sullivan

The Ryder truck with the bomb inside exploded outside the north side of the Alfred P. Murrah building. The force of the blast totally destroyed the front of the building. Back in the southeast corner of the building, a slab of concrete from an upper floor landed flat and unbroken on two adjacent piles of rubble, forming a small cave that was about five feet high at the opening and extended for twenty to thirty feet. The slab sloped downward from front to back, so at the back of the cave rescuers were forced to crawl on their stomachs.

It was at the back of this cave that rescuers discovered a woman named Daina who was pinned by the rubble. In the following selection, Kevin G. Thompson, a police sergeant with the Oklahoma City Police Department, and Andy Sullivan, an...