Last week’s images from Boston and Texas were at times horrific and at times inspiring. Even as the focus Friday shifted to a citywide lockdown and manhunt in Boston and recovery of victims’ bodies in West, Texas, the actions of first responders, public safety professionals and volunteers must not be forgotten.

In the shocking video images of the bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon on Monday, the sight of the medical professionals, first responders and even average citizens providing aid to the bloodied bombing victims offered a lesson in service and humanity.

Yet, interviews with dozens of people who provided emergency medical aid and comfort in the minutes after the bombing found them all saying they were just doing what came naturally or, in some cases, just doing their jobs.

Still, it was remarkable to see the videos of the powerful blast near the finish line, then notice that within seconds, dozens of people were streaming toward the billowing smoke and carnage.

The natural reaction for most people would be to run in the opposite direction to get away from danger. Yet these men and women, some medical or public safety professionals, rushed in to provide aid. They must have been aware that terror bombers sometimes detonate a second bomb near the first one a few minutes after the first blast to kill aid workers.

In Boston, there was no hesitation to get to the injured. Almost immediately, fire department EMTs were pulling away the fencing along the race course to get to the victims. Doctors and nurses who had been stationed at the medical tent at the marathon’s finish line a few yards away raced to help.

Although the team of men and women in the marathon medical tent had been expecting to treat cases of hypothermia, dehydration and maybe some heart issues, they immediately shifted into trauma mode and triage.

There were also military veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who were there to support fellow vets running in the marathon. They too, dressed in their desert fatigues, could be seen in the videos rushing to help the bomb blast victims.

In fact, war training from treating victims of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and the proximity of the medical tent both played a role in keeping the fatality total lower than it might otherwise have been without such immediate and competent medical treatment. One nurse stationed in the medical tent relied on his war experience from Iraq and his knowledge of the importance of tourniquets to save gravely wounded victims of the bomb blasts.

Carlos Arrendondo, seen in many photographs wearing a cowboy hat and a veterans-related T-shirt, was pictured helping a young man whose lower leg had been amputated by the blast. Arrendondo had lost one son in the Iraq war and had another son commit suicide after suffering depression following the death of his brother. Arrendondo had been handing out American flags near the finish line in support of war vets running in the race, but moments after the blast, he ran to the carnage on the sidewalk and applied a tourniquet to the shattered leg of a victim and then helped him into a wheelchair.

Reporters’ suggestions of heroism were deflected by these people, who said they were only doing what was necessary or doing their jobs.

In the same week that first responders, professional and volunteer, were being praised in Boston, a deadly blast in West, Texas, killed 14 people, including 11 members of the volunteer fire department who were working to put out a fire at the fertilizer plant when the massive explosion occurred.

After a week in which we saw an ugly sliver of the worst of humanity, it’s worth remembering that we also saw many examples of the best of humanity.