- [Reporter] 29 died, twice that number burned.

Jacksonville responded to the call for help and sent two rescue units to the scene.

[siren wailing] - This was a response never seen before, in this area.

16 cities, 14 hospitals, the Army, Navy, and the Coast Guard.

[dramatic music] - The first explosion blew me out of there.

And so I hit the ground running.

Whatever way I felt, it was something there and I couldn't get by it.

I'm going to die today.

Lord, I don't want to suffer, make it quick.

And then the wind blows.

[somber music] And when I stood up, as far as I could see was the bodies all out there.

[somber music] - I was in another building when the explosion happened, but it didn't take me but a minute to get down there.

[chuckles] - [Interviewer] What did you do when you got there?

- We had to pick up those people and put out the fire, little fire on the inside the building.

- It flashed across the TV for all personnel from the hospital to come back to work.

- I just remember hearing sirens, helicopters flying over our school.

- I got on the back of one of the fire trucks and went down, not being a fireman at that time.

I just said, "I need to go down there."

- My dad was at Thiokol that day.

That was his place of employment.

He was actually a supervisor.

He was one of the ones out there, stumbling around while trying to save his coworkers and his close friends.

- They stopped pulling off bodies and then they heard somebody groaning and they found me down there.

[somber music] - To see human beings torn up, blown up, outta all I seen in Vietnam, that was horrible.

[somber music] [ambient music]