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John Hollenhorst ReportingA town on the Utah-Wyoming border looked back 20 years today.
KMER RADIO, May 16, 1986: "The bomb has exploded! There are injuries at the scene."
Cokeville, Wyoming. May 16, 1986. A terrifying hostage incident and a bombing in a classroom jammed with kids. It was a near catastrophe. Cokeville residents remembered it today as something positive.
Jennifer Dwinell is a mom herself now. Tears flowed as she showed her kids the classroom where she was terrorized 20 years ago.
Jennifer Dwinell, Cokeville Survivor: "Probably the hardest thing to ever do was to send my kids to school after what I went through because some people think schools are safe and I know better."
Lori Conger is a Mom in Layton. The day of the tragedy she was a kid in 5th grade.
Lori Conger, Cokeville Survivor: "This tragedy really turned into a miracle. And that's how I see it now."
Many of the grownup kids had a reunion today with teachers and emergency workers.
Sharon Dayton: "There's still a lot of scars today."
On that terrifying day, a man and woman herded the entire school into a single classroom. They kept the kids hostage for hours with guns and a huge gasoline bomb.
Lori Conger: "My brother came to me and said, 'Don't worry, there's no way they're going to let that bomb go off. They don't want to die!'"
Jennifer Dwinell: "I remember the room being on fire and everything was so black."
In the small classroom jammed with 150 kids, the bomb went off. But it went off accidentally and incompletely, with the force going up instead of out. Kids scrambled to safety, some injured, none killed. Many claim they were guided from the burning classroom.
Jennifer Dwinell: "It could have been an angel, and I know there was angels with us that day to watch over us and protect us. There's no other way that we would have gotten out."
That belief is why it was commemorated, not as tragedy, but as the Cokeville Miracle.
The only fatalities were the hostage-takers. Doris Young was badly injured in the bombing. Her husband quickly shot her and then killed himself.
