Rescuers End Search for Missing Blast Victims : Bombing: Governor cites instability of building, doubts anyone is alive. Bulldozers to remove rubble.

Gov. Frank Keating announced late Sunday night that rescuers have halted attempts to find people still missing in the bombed-out Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and instead will use bulldozers and other heavy equipment to remove the rubble.

Keating, after touring the site and being briefed by engineers and rescue officials, said that the instability of the structure and the fact that there is no likelihood anyone is still alive in the building prompted the decision by rescue officials.

“We are shifting from rescue to recovery,” Keating said. “Tragically, it does not make sense to put further lives in jeopardy.”

He said he hoped rescue officials would still “be sensitive” to the families of the 62 people thought to be missing in the building as the effort turns to “extraction” rather than rescue.

A day earlier, Keating, after a similar tour and briefing, had become the first official to suggest that the rescue effort was near an end when he told reporters that the building might become a tomb for some of the missing.

Because of the danger of falling concrete and steel, rescuers have been unable for four days to continue their work near the area known as “The Pit,” which is believed to contain the remains of the missing.

The Pit is an interior section of the building closest to where a bomb exploded April 19, causing three to four floors to collapse into the building’s basement.

Meanwhile, the focus of the bombing investigation has shifted away from Oklahoma City to the tiny desert community of Kingman, Ariz., where federal authorities have established a command post to assist in searching for clues to the whereabouts of a second suspect, known as John Doe No. 2.

On Sunday, the command post was buzzing with activity as federal agents chased down leads provided to them by numerous Kingman residents who either knew jailed suspect Timothy J. McVeigh when he lived there or thought they knew someone fitting the description of John Doe No. 2.

Keating’s announcement came after a day in which officials had begun to discuss publicly the need to end the rescue effort. In midafternoon, Jon Hansen, assistant chief of the Oklahoma City Fire Department, said that structural engineers were trying several shoring-up methods to stabilize what is left of the nine-story structure so that rescuers could work in The Pit.

If those methods--including the use of cables and reinforcements around the existing columns--were unsuccessful, officials would have to decide whether there were other methods available to shore up the building, Hansen said.

If not, Hansen said then, the difficult decision on halting rescue efforts in that part of the building might have to be made.

Later, Keating said the hard decision had been reached. He said the operation to remove the rubble would most likely begin within a few days, when bulldozers and other heavy equipment necessary for the job arrive at the site.

Workers have finished filling in a crater--30 feet wide and 8 feet deep--in front of the building, thus allowing construction cranes to work closer to the building to clear away large chunks of debris.

Even though they were unable to work in The Pit, rescuers did continue to work in other areas, and the number of bodies recovered increased to 134.

“The whole building is not going to come down,” Hansen explained. “There are very, very safe areas. But there is a small area that is very, very dangerous and, unfortunately, that is an area where we believe there are many of those still missing.”

Keating’s announcement came after two days in which officials had seemed to attempt to prepare the public for the grim fact that some of the bodies may never be recovered. Hansen and other officials had acknowledged over the weekend for the first time that the chances of finding anyone alive in the building are, barring a miracle, virtually nonexistent.

Any decision to halt rescue work, Hansen had said, would be made by a committee of officials involved in the search and rescue effort, which has involved firefighters and other specialists from across the nation. The committee is headed by the Oklahoma City fire chief.

Rescue efforts Sunday had continued at “The Pancake,” the name bestowed on the rubble pile in front of the building. Most of the newly discovered bodies were found there, Hansen said.

To date, the goal of the round-the-clock operation has been to clear away The Pancake to provide better access to The Pit.

Despite the risks facing workers in The Pit, Ray Blakeney, director of operations for the Oklahoma state Medical Examiner’s office, had on Sunday morning continued to express confidence that all bodies will be recovered, possibly as early as Friday.

But he added that he had no hopes of finding anyone alive. “I don’t think that’s a possibility,” he said.

Gene Taylor, an Oklahoma City social worker who has been counseling the families of the missing and fears that his estranged wife may be among the victims, said he was stunned by the governor’s announcement. “I’m just overloaded by it,” he said. “We’ve all been holding on to hope. It’s hard to believe it may be over.”

An unprecedented number of donations--both large and small--continue to flow into relief agencies and others involved in the rescue effort and efforts to aid the healing process.

The American Red Cross has received six U.S. Mail buckets full of mail daily from people offering donations and good wishes.

A man in Jackson, Miss., sent a 20-foot cross of flowers to the First Christian Church, which has served as headquarters for the families of those still missing.

The Rev. Don H. Alexander, senior minister at First Christian Church, said Sunday that despite the attack on the federal building, Oklahomans should take heart in the national outpouring of sympathy and assistance.

“Those who are for us are more numerous than those who are against us,” he said.

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