A fireman who rushed to help people in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing has told the inquiry that the scene reminded him of an iconic image of the Vietnam War.
The final week of the commemorative hearings at the inquiry has begun. It will sit for three days this week, bringing to an end this phase of proceedings.
The inquiry is hearing from representatives of the fire and ambulance service who assisted at the scene on the day of the dissident republican bombing on 15 August 1998.
Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed. More than 200 people were injured
Over the past three weeks, families of the dead and survivors of the bombing have given emotional testimony about the impact of the 1998 explosion in the County Tyrone market town.
Station Commander Paddy Quinn has described how he had been working in his carpet shop when he heard the blast and ran to help.
He said a crew was ready and on the scene within minutes of the blast.
Mr Quinn, who is still a serving officer, said they had assumed the area had been cleared and they would be dealing with a fire and damaged buildings.
They had been told the blast had happened at the courthouse.
But when they turned the corner into Market Street, the scale of the unfolding tragedy was immediately apparent.
"I now have a permanent photo in my head. The thought I had - it looked like when I had seen a photograph many years ago of the Vietnam War," he said.
"There was a cloud dust and there was a young girl running across the road terrified and that's just the image ... that's just what it looked like."
Mr Quinn went on to say that the first person he saw from his fire engine was his own mother, who was sitting on the pavement holding a toothbrush. He later learned that she had been carrying plastic shopping bags but the blast had blown them out of her hands.
He said he had not suffered serious physical injuries but from then until now, he and she had never spoken of that day again.
Mr Quinn said he went on to help an injured woman to an Ulsterbus, which was taking the injured to hospital
He said he had not looked around him.
"I didn't look around me too much. I knew there was people injured. I remember leaving here there, as I turned to get on to the bus I noticed the floor was red, not blue."
Watch: Omagh Bombing Inquiry under way
He found one of the dead in a shop and spoke to another man who told him his wife had been killed and he was searching for his children.
He said as an Omagh man he was being approached by local people who were begging him to help find their loved ones.
Mr Quinn said he thought he had spent 20 mins at the scene but when he returned to the station it transpired that they had been there for three to four hours.
"I remember going through my head what I'd done and it seemed like I just needed to do like 100 jobs but never got to do complete any of them," he said.
"It seemed to me that you were going to the greatest need but then the greatest need was superseded by another greatest need and that's what we just kept doing all day."
The following day people were phoning him to ask how he was. He told them he was fine, but in reality he was crying.
Quinn was unable to walk or drive up Market Street
Mr Quinn said for many years he was unable to walk or drive up Market Street. He said it was a place where people had died and he could not bring himself to do it.
For years, his dreams were haunted by images of things he believed he had seen.
He said his colleagues had also suffered. One had lost a member of his family, another had never turned out to another incident and more continued to need ongoing support.
He said he had been a firefighter for almost 30 years and had turned out to many distressing incidents.
"It's a privilege to serve my own community. In those 29 years I've attended many tragic and horrendous incidents but nothing I have responded to since the Omagh bomb has ever come anywhere close."
Mr Quinn concluded his evidence by repeating a saying common amongst fire crews.
"The firefighter may leave the incident, but the incident never leaves the firefighter."
Paramedic's role became one of body recovery
The inquiry also heard from paramedic Richard Quigley.
By the time Mr Quigley reached Omagh, the injured had been taken to hospital and his role became one of body recovery.
He described how he and his colleagues had retrieved the bodies of the dead from shops where they had been placed out of sight and from a small entry just off the street.
Mr Quigley said he remembered a strong smell of beer which was flowing down the street from a wrecked pub opposite the scene of the blast.
He said as he lifted the bodies he could not distinguish which end was which. It was the same for all the bags he lifted.
The victims were loaded in groups of threes and fours into the back of ambulances parked at the rear of Market Street.
"We then drove in convoy with lights and silently to the temporary morgue set up in the army (camp) gymnasium," said Mr Quigley.
"I recall seeing the number of body bags laid out and each had its own area, all in rows with a chair at the end.
"The size of the gym and the number of body bags on the floor was something that should only have been seen in a movie."
He said he had never been back to Market Street in the years since the bombing.
"On a personal note I have yet to walk around Market Street or to the Peace Garden.
"Will I ever walk through the alleyway where the bodies were laid end to end? Probably never.
"Should I? I might get closure."
Omagh inquiry: The victims remembered
The father of 12-year-old James Barker gave evidence via video link.
James was a pupil at Buncrana Primary School and had been on a day trip with some friends and a party of Spanish exchange students when they were caught in the blast.
His father, Victor Barker, a prominent campaigner among the bereaved families, gave evidence this afternoon.
The commemorative hearings have been held to put those who suffered in the bombing at the heart of the inquiry, by painting a picture of the lives taken and the continuing trauma of those injured.
After this weeks hearing's the inquiry will take a break before the next phase of the evidence is taken.
The inquiry was set up by the British government to establish whether the 1998 bombing could have been prevented.
There have been allegations that the authorities could have done more with information provided by informers or gathered through the monitoring of suspects in order to thwart the bombers.
