ATTACK ON AMTRAK : Remote Wreck Site Slows Rescue Efforts : Derailment: Getting there requires four-wheel-drive vehicles. Dust clouds kicked up along the way also impede emergency aid convoy.

“It was a mess,” rescue worker Matt Phillips said of the scene where Amtrak’s Sunset Limited skipped the track Monday and hurtled into a rugged ravine in the Arizona desert. “You couldn’t have picked a further out spot in terms of being away from help.”

The train, headed for Los Angeles with 268 people on board, was about five hours away from its destination when the derailment occurred. Rescuers needed four-wheel-drive vehicles to reach the injured passengers.

When they finally arrived, with the aid of about two dozen military and police helicopters, emergency personnel completed a dramatic rescue.

“To understand the awesomeness of what we were facing, think of the site as a speck in the middle of a desolate desert, and we were working in the dark,” said Sgt. J.A. Kleinheinz of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department. “It’s unbelievable that so many people got in there so quickly.”

“The logistics are tough enough when you’re in the middle of a big city,” said Phillips of the Rural Metro Fire Department. “But it becomes damn near impossible when you’re in the middle of nowhere. . . . Whoever did this knew the spot to pick.”

Authorities said sabotage caused the accident, which sent the Sunset Limited hurtling off a 30-foot-high bridge about 60 miles southwest of Phoenix early Monday. Four cars plunged from the bridge at 50 m.p.h., with three coming to rest on their sides on the sandy bottom of the desert wash.

One person was killed and more than 100 others--including a 3-month-old baby--suffered injuries, said Maricopa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Campbell.

The site is so remote that it took the first rescuers about 40 minutes to reach it--and nearly five hours to get everybody out.

“The area was mountainous and very rough desert terrain,” said Bill Lanford, district chief of the Buckeye Rural Fire District. “You needed a four-wheel-drive vehicle to get in there.”

“Even people who’ve lived around here for decades can’t find it,” Phillips said.

Alan Calvert, volunteer fire chief for the town of Buckeye--about 25 miles west of Phoenix--and among the first on the scene, said he got the call at 2:06 a.m. but did not get to the scene until about 3:20 a.m.

“It took us that long to get out there because of road conditions,” he said. Rescuers had to drive 20 miles over a winding dirt road and were limited to traveling 10 m.p.h. to 15 m.p.h because of dust created by vehicles ahead of them.

“The road was bad enough that you could not bring in ambulances or firetrucks,” Calvert said.

The most seriously injured were taken by helicopter directly to hospitals. Others were flown by helicopter to a command center several miles from the wreck site and later sent by ambulance to hospitals. A train was sent from Phoenix to bring back uninjured passengers and crew.

“The scene was incredible. I’ve never seen an operation this size,” Campbell said. “At the command center, helicopters were landing and taking off nonstop. Ambulances were speeding off every few minutes. At the accident site, medical personnel were all over the place treating wounded passengers. Helicopters were zooming in and out.”

Assistance was provided by the Marines, Air Force and Army National Guard.

When they reached the scene, Calvert said, rescue workers found the train cars on their sides--and passengers climbing out.

“Two sleeper cars and a dining car went off a 35-foot ravine into an area of dry wash,” Lanford said. “Two sleeper cars were completely on their sides. The injured people were [lying] on the sides of the cars. The other passengers had helped them there. The most amazing part to me was that the train didn’t come apart. That saved a lot of lives.”

“The scene was surprisingly calm,” he said. “The passengers and the crew worked hard to organize things at the scene and help the injured.”

Phillips said he saw “a lot of walking wounded, a lot of people who were scared, cold and confused.” Those without medical problems were frightened, he said. Counselors were later provided.

Rescuers boarded the train and lowered the injured, using backboards and rope slings.

“We were very very fortunate we had only one fatality,” Calvert said.

The critically injured were evacuated by 8 a.m. and other passengers were out by 10 a.m., officials said.

Chief Warrant Officer Tony Adolf of the Army National Guard in Phoenix said that up to 20 helicopters were at the site at one time. Among the passengers he transported, Adolf said, “the most common remark they all made was ‘Thank you.’ They were happy to see us and get out of there.”

Times staff writer Richard Simon in Los Angeles contributed to this story.