‘A Real Sick Feeling In Your Stomach’
A 28-year veteran of the Moore Fire Department, Fire Chief Gary Bird has been through several tornadoes. For him, the morning of May 20 began with a call from the Director of Emergency Management Gayland Kitch, informing him that there was to be an immediate weather conference for city officials. Bird met with the city manager, deputy fire chief and Kitch to video conference with meteorologist Rick Smith at the NWS in Norman.
“After listening to the conference and all the explanations of just how it was developing, it didn’t look good,” Bird says. “Rick Smith was very concerned about this storm.”
Bird rallied his firefighters and gave orders that all fire crews were to remain at their stations – leaving only for emergency calls – prepare for a possible tornado emergency and monitor the weather. That afternoon, his worst fears were confirmed as a monstrous tornado crossed Interstate 44 just west of his station. At that juncture, the fire chief made a difficult call.
“We made the decision to take all of our equipment and leave and go south to just inside Norman city limits,” he says. “We made the decision to leave because the track this tornado was taking was definitely going through Moore, and we were going to need all of our equipment to take care of our citizens. We could not afford to lose over a fourth of our fleet.
“This decision was not made lightly. We knew we could still get through traffic, we knew where the tornado was, but we needed to move,” he says.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Bird and his crews focused on search and rescue for victims trapped under debris. It is a day the chief will never forget.
“The most difficult part of this is dealing with the loss of life, especially the children in the school,” he says. “When you have to report to your boss a certain number of casualties, then, when you’re in a press conference and the numbers double, then, all of sudden they double again, you just get a real sick feeling in your stomach. Thank God it was just misinformation; the numbers never grew like reported. It could have been a lot worse, but the lives we lost were way too many.”
