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PARKERSBURG - Area emergency responders received training over the weekend on how to deal with a possible bombing scenario with emphasis on what is needed from local law enforcement, fire officials and emergency medical personnel.

Over 80 local responders from both Ohio and West Virginia met Saturday at Parkersburg South High School to be instructed on procedures by Homeland Security/terrorism experts from California and other places who discussed explosives and how a bombing situation could be handled locally, said Jay Parsons, chief of the Mineral Wells Volunteer Fire Department.

"It went well and the instructors were well received," Parsons said.

The instructors, from Georgia and Virginia, included a fire chief who was also on his area's bomb squad and an FBI agent with experience in dealing with explosives.

Parsons said a number of Mineral Wells VFD personnel were able to travel to New Mexico last spring, as part of a federal grant, to receive specialized operations training regarding explosive material at the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center in Socorro, N.M.

Once out there, Parsons learned the people doing the class would fly instructors all over the country to do awareness training seminars if there was enough local interest. Parsons started contacting local agencies and was able to set up the training seminar held Saturday.

The program was sponsored by the Wood County Sheriff's Department, the Wood County Commission, the Wood County Volunteer Firefighters Association, RESA V and the West Virginia Fire Marshal's Office. The 83 participants came from area fire departments, law enforcement agencies and emergency responders as well as local 911 dispatchers from both Ohio and West Virginia.

"With all the buildings we have in this area and with the (bomb threats) at local schools over the past couple of years, we thought this kind of training would be good here," Parsons said.

Topics covered included doing a incident response to a terrorist bombing and to a suicide bombing, covering things before and afterwards and how to manage the incident in relation to all of the agencies involved if an incident occurred at a public building, a business or a school.

The training was to build awareness of what could happen and how it could be handled, Parsons said, adding a number of participants Saturday were already making plans to travel to New Mexico soon for the more hands-on operational training.