HOME,Pa. -- A big yellow-and-white truck in the garage of the state's new Marion Center Mine Rescue and Training Center looks like an ambulance on steroids, holds 260 self-contained breathing packs and underground communication equipment, and can speed to any of 15 underground coal mines in an hour or less.

The proximity of the rescue truck to the mines is mandated by federal laws passed in the aftermath of accidents that killed 47 miners in 2006, including 12 at the Sago Mine in West Virginia. The old law required rescue equipment to be within two hours of a mine.

Today, state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger dedicated the modest, one-story cement block building in Indiana County, saying it represented a major step in mine safety and accident response.

"This is the latest of several significant improvements to mine safety in Pennsylvania, including the purchase of new, state-of-the-art mine rescue equipment and passage of historic legislation that updates our 125 year-old bituminous mine safety law," he said.

The building along Route 119 has a wide garage, a meeting room for training sessions and several small offices. It cost about $1 million to build and equip, and is used to train four mine rescue teams that provide coverage to mines in Armstrong, Beaver, Clarion, Clearfield, Indiana and Jefferson counties.