Mother of Bombing victim testifies on importance of safety glass

Aren Almon-Kok, spokesperson for the Protecting People First Foundation. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Aren Almon-Kok says she wanted to transfer the famous image of her daughter being

Friday, March 24th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Aren Almon-Kok, spokesperson for the Protecting People First Foundation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Aren Almon-Kok says she wanted to transfer the famous image of her daughter being carried from the Oklahoma bombing rubble "from an image of terror to an image of safety."

To do that, Almon-Kok has become the spokeswoman for the Protecting People First Foundation and is supporting legislation aimed at protecting people from one of a bombing's deadliest hazards -- flying shards of glass.

"I didn't mind using that image if it could save people's lives," she told a House subcommittee Thursday.

Her daughter, 1-year-old Baylee Almon, died as a result of injuries suffered in the April 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The picture of Baylee being carried by a firefighter became a Pulitzer Prize winner.

The proposed bill being backed by Almon-Kok and the foundation includes $30 million to refurbish federal buildings with shatter-resistant glass.

"Sadly, as a 1999 congressional report indicated, many of these deaths and injuries could have been avoided if the proper technology were in place at the Murrah building at the time of the bombing," said Almon-Kok, whose child was in the building's daycare center that morning.

In response to the bombing, President Clinton ordered shattered-resistant windows or protective laminate installed in the windows of daycare centers at federal buildings with a higher risk of attack.

About 25 percent of the daycare centers housed in federal buildings now have protective laminate, said Eric Cote, an official with the foundation, which is funded by the glass laminate industry.

Rep. John Cooksey, R-La., said terrorists in Kenya rigged bombs near windows purposefully to increase the damage done by flying glass fragments in the 1998 attack on the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. An eye surgeon by training, Cooksey said eyes are especially vulnerable to flying glass.

While a laminated window will shatter, the lamination holds the fragments together, Cote said. Including labor, laminating glass in federal and other office buildings costs between $6 and $12 per square foot, he said.

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On the Net: Protecting People First Foundation, http://www.ProtectingPeople.org

One-year-old Baylee Almon killed in the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.