Santa Maria Valley has already had one fatal crash in recent months involving public transportation, when a Greyhound bus tipped over Thanksgiving weekend on Highway 101.

If the next potential tragedy involves an Amtrak train, firefighters and rescue workers will be ready.

Roughly 120 area firefighters, police, airmen and emergency medical technicians attended workshops this week schooling them on the fine points of responding to an emergency on the railroad passenger and freight company.

The workshops - which drew trainees from Templeton to Vandenberg Air Force Base - took rescue workers from mechanical diagrams in the classroom to hands-on exercises on a Superliner train, parked in the 700 block of South Miller Street.

The series of all-day workshops moves the Santa Maria Fire Department forward in its goal of seeking top certification as an urban search-and-rescue team through the California Office of Emergency Services.

A “heavy,” or Type 1, designation allows a search-and-rescue team to go into the worst of situations, such as crumbled buildings, said Battalion Chief Jack Owen, a department spokesman.

Santa Maria is currently certified as a “medium” urban search- and-rescue team. The goal is to pool together a regional team from Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

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“It's still in its infancy right now,” Owen said. “One of the chief's goals, he's very heavy into urban search and rescue so he's been spearheading this.”

Fire officials saw the need for the team during Hurricane Katrina when California was depleted of heavy search and rescue teams, all of whom left for the Gulf Coast, Owen said.

Once certified as Type 1, fire officials hope to bring a search and rescue vehicle to the department through Homeland Security funding. The vehicle would resemble a Greyhound bus and would be a self-contained unit that would support the team and equipment.

The majority of the equipment associated with the team would be paid for through OES funding, with some covered in the city's annual budget, Owen said.

Most attendees at this week's workshops were firefighters. Other area emergency workers, including Santa Maria Police's Special Emergency Response Team, also attended.

This week's workshops were led by Amtrak emergency preparedness managers.

Santa Maria last joined a search and rescue effort during the massive response to the La Conchita mudslides in January 2005.

The last train-related accident in the Santa Maria Valley was more than a decade ago when a freight train struck a pedestrian, Owen said.

Mark Baylis can be reached

at 739-2218 or mbaylis@santamariatimes.com

January 26, 2006