There really is no great place to have a heart attack, except perhaps in a hospital — or in the tiny Turquoise Trail town of Madrid.

Nobody's accusing Madrid of turning into a ER ward, but with throngs of summer tourists about to crowd the town's galleries and businesses along N.M. 14, the town's volunteer fire department and the Santa Fe County Fire Department decided to take an extra step to keep people safe.

They recruited 12 intrepid Madrid citizens to give up a day's worth of their time this week and learn the art of CPR, defibrillation and other lifesaving techniques.

And the Madrid Volunteer Fire Department Association threw together some fundraisers to pay $1,500 each for two state-of- the-art defibrillators, one for each side of town.

"It's a safety precaution. We haven't had an incident," said Steve Shepherd, a volunteer firefighter. "We get a lot of tourists from sea level, who aren't used to the altitude. Sometimes they faint. We also get a lot of elderly people. And we just wanted to be prepared."

When somebody's heart stops, rescuers have between four and six minutes to return blood flow to the brain before the person becomes brain-dead, said Jess Ivey, a paramedic for the Santa Fe County Fire Department, who donated his time to train the civilians.

"If you think about it, just the time lost in you calling 911 is about two minutes, then us getting the call and trying to get out is another two minutes — that's just not fast enough," Ivey said.

By participating in the training, the 12 residents, six from each side of town, will be able to quickly restore blood flow to the brain with CPR and the defibrillators while waiting for paramedics to arrive.

"This is, to my knowledge, the first community in the entire county to come together and learn to be first responders," Ivey said. "It's very exciting for us from the fire department standpoint, which is why our union chipped in and decided to pay for their CPR cards."

The cards cost about $6 each and certify the holder for two years.

Dan Ayres, whose family owns The Old Boarding House Mercantile, said he was glad to get a chance to participate in the training.

"It sounded like a good idea," Ayres said.

The mercantile and the Mine Shaft Tavern will each house one of the defibrillators.

"It's nice that there will be several people trained at each establishment," Ayres said.

The defibrillators are each about the size of a lunch box, and are lightweight enough to be carried to a heart attack victim in an emergency.

Training is helpful, and needed for the CPR component of a rescue, but the machine actually could be used by just about anybody in a crisis situation, Ivey said.

When you open the defibrillator and turn it on, a voice runs you through steps. "Call for help now," it yelled almost immediately when Ivey opened the top of the trainer model.

It then runs through steps telling the person to remove clothes from the victim's chest and where to put the pads, among other things.

Once it's attached, the device checks the victim's chest and will recommend either a shock or for the responder to continue performing CPR.

The 12 volunteers also learned how to do chest compressions, breathing support and the Heimlich maneuver, among other things — and got to practice those techniques on dummies and on each other.

"Working on the mannequins, that's been real helpful," Ayres said. "It's good to practice the techniques rather than just watching a video."

Ivey said he was proud of the residents for volunteering for the training, and that he hopes other Santa Fe County communities decide to follow Madrid's example.

"This could almost be viewed as a pilot program for the county. We hope the word catches on," Ivey said.

Shepherd said he hopes the volunteers never have to use the defibrillators — or that any visitors to Madrid suffer from any medical problems, but it's nice to be on the safe side, he added.

"If over the next 10 years we save one life with this training and equipment, it's worth it," Shepherd said.

Contact Sue Vorenberg at svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.