MOORE, Okla. – Corley Moore, Kyle Olsen and Blake Munsey are firefighters for the Moore Fire Department. They were off duty on Monday, May 20, 2013. Immediately after the tornado pass, the three individually reported to their stations but found themselves responding to the same location, Plaza Towers Elementary School.
As long-time firefighters for the city of Moore, they couldn’t believe the destruction.
“We pulled up to Plaza and it was just a pile of rubble. And um, that’s when I opened the back of the ambulance it wasn’t a good sight,” Kyle Olsen said.
They immediately started moving debris, searching for survivors.
Corley Moore recalled a small victory, “I know the first 3 kids we pulled out were alive. Then we had a teacher, I believe it was the pregnant teacher.”
But sadly, there were victims, “there was nothing we were going to do to save the ones that didn’t make it. Nothing we could have done different,” said Corley.
The three concentrated on the hallway where seven children died that day.
Blake Munsey said he has trouble recalling memories from that day.
“It was such blur, from when it hit to the time I went home that night,” he said. “It was, I mean, it happened so fast.”
Even five years later, the loss of seven children is unfathomable. “It took probably three years and you know it’s still hard to go by the school. I know it’s new but it’s still hard,” said Kyle.