HOULTON – While area students have been busy making Christmas decorations to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, some of their relatives and neighbors have been learning how better to respond to those attacks.

About 30 firefighters, law enforcement officers and emergency medical technicians from more than a half-dozen central and southern Aroostook County towns spent the weekend learning about different types of terrorist attacks and how they should deal with them.

The emergency response to terrorism class that was offered at Houlton Regional Hospital on Saturday and Sunday was designed for people who could expect to find themselves first on the scene to an incident where many people could be killed or injured.

The Hodgdon Volunteer Fire Department sponsored the class.

“The key importance here is the ability of people to be able to assess the situation and provide appropriate protection for themselves,” said Sherman Lahaie, deputy administrator for Maine Fire Training & Education, and the class instructor.

“We’re not asking you to scoop up the stuff or plug the hole,” Lahaie told the group. “Operations-level people are the ones who will prepare the scene prior to the [specialized] team’s arrival.”

Terrorism isn’t new and history records many incidents. In the 18th century, the Russians catapulted disease-infected corpses into areas held by the Swedes in an effort to kill large numbers of their enemy.

Explosives have become the preferred method of operation of most terrorists, accounting for 70 percent of all attacks in recent years.

According to figures compiled by the FBI, from 1990 through 1995, more than 15,700 criminal bombing incidents in the United States killed 355 people, injured more than 3,100 and caused more than $659 million in damage.

“Bombs are the weapon of choice,” said Lahaie, adding that secondary bombs designed to go off later and injure emergency workers are becoming more common as well.

During the class, participants learned about terrorist weapons known by the ironic acronym B-NICE, for biological, nuclear, incendiary, chemical and explosive.

“There are a lot of unknowns out there,” Lahaie said. “We need to be conscious of things that are different.”

As an example he cited one group of people who contaminated a restaurant salad bar with salmonella, making several people sick.

More recently, the fear of anthrax and the rash of suspicious packages and powders found in buildings have made people more vigilant.

“If something is not normal, that should be a suspect package,” he said. “If you don’t know what it is, stay away from it.”

During the 16-hour class, participants learned how to protect themselves, secure the scene, and what agencies to contact to help them deal with the situation.

“For a small town, the value of this class is the information we get and the added resources we can draw from,” said Patten Fire Chief John Roy. “There’s a lot of good information from other departments that I can take back to my own department.”

Milton Cone, fire chief and ambulance director for Houlton, said the weekend class offered emergency workers the chance to acquire training they otherwise might not be able to get. Most, he said, would be unable to attend similar classes offered at the National Fire Academy in Pennsylvania.

“The threat of terrorism and the tools they’re using or may use against us are real,” he said. “There are increased risks.

“Hazardous or terrorist situations cannot be treated the same as the so-called normal structure fire,” he said.