Murrah Federal Building

Ammonium nitrate (NH NO, also known as Norway saltpeter ) is mainly used as a fertilizer. It is also known as the chemical that was mixed with diesel fuel to create the explosion that demohshed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. 

More than 9,000 Red Cross workers respond to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by providing a range of immediate and long-term assistance to victims... 

That same year, 19 children (11.3% of the 168 fatalities) died in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 (Quintana et al., 1997). Sixteen of the children who died were seated by the window of the day care center at the time of the explosion. Among the 19 dead children, 90% sustained skull fractures, with 79% sustaining cerebral evisceration 37% suffered abdominal or thoracic injuries 31% had amputations 47% had arm and 26% had leg fractures 21% were burned and 100% had extensive cutaneous contusions, avulsions, and lacerations (Quintana et al., 1997). Forty-seven children sustained nonfatal injuries, with seven requiring hospitalization (Quintana et al., 1997). Again, hospitalized children sustained severe skull and brain injuries, extremity fractures, amputations, and burns (Quintana et al., 1997). 

On April 19,1995, a bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The devastating impact of the explosion destroyed the building within eight seconds. Each of the nine floors collapsed on top of one another. The bomb killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. The nation was stunned to learn that the attack had not been committed by international terrorists, but by a domestic terrorist, American Timothy McVeigh. 

Ammonium nitrate is the most important fertilizer in the world (see p. 96). It ranked fifteenth among the industrial chemicals produced in the United States in 1995 (8 million tons). Unfortunately, it is also a powerful explosive. In 1 947 an explosion occurred aboard a ship being loaded with the fertilizer in Texas. The fertilizer was in paper bags and apparently blew up after sailors tried to stop a fire in the ship s hold by closing a hatch, thereby creating the compression and heat necessary for an explosion. More than six hundred people died as a result of the accident. More recent disasters involving ammonium nitrate took place at the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993 and at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. 

Terrorism is often categorized as "domestic" or "international. This distinction refers not to where the terrorist act takes place but rather to the origin of the individuals or groups responsible for it. For example, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was an act of domestic ten orism, but the attacks of September 2001 were international in nature. 

ANFO Ammonium nitrate-fuel oil. A mixture used extensively as a blasting agent in mining and quarrying. The proportions are approximately 94% ammonium nitrate and 6% fuel oil. ANFO has been used in terrorist attacks (e.g. an attack on the Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, in 1995). 

The term weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is used commonly when speaking of terrorist attacks, but such attacks are the exception rather than the rule. The term WMD refers to the magnitude of the attack, not the manner of attack. The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 are examples of mass destruction. The damage caused by detonation of a nuclear device would be another example. In actuality most terrorist attacks cause limited damage and death, and the term WMD should not be applied to them. 

Ammonium nitrate is a precursor to many important explosives and also has considerable explosive potential itself. Because ammonium nitrate is also widely used as a fertilizer, it is readily available for purchase. An unfortunate result of this availability is that it has often been used in bombings, including the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. 

April 19, 1995 An explosion rips through the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It completely tears off the north wall and leaves 168 dead, including 19 children. The terrorists had purchased ammonium nitrate from a farm cooperative and nitro-methane racing fuel at a racetrack for materials to construct the bomb. It was rigged in a rental truck and parked in front of the building. A detonation-delay mechanism allowed the bomber to escape prior to the explosion. This was the most lethal terrorist attack to ever occur in the United States. 

ANFO is a high explosive made from Ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. This is the type of explosive Timothy McVeigh used to attack the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City or April 19,1995. It is composed of ammonium nitrate and 6% fuel oil. A similar mixture of urea nitrate and other materials was used in the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. 

Ammonium nitrate is used in making such common products as anesthetics, matches, fireworks, and fertilizer. It was also the explosive used in the tragic bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. 

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