The mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts, has offered help to the mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts, after a series of natural gas explosions and fires there, and in Andover and North Andover.
Mayor Domenic Sarno of Springfield led the city through a tornado in 2011 and a natural gas explosion in 2012, which damaged 42 buildings and injured 18 people.
Sarno said he has a game plan for handling such life-threatening crises.
"Search and rescue -- really the first 24 hours is triage," he said. "Then you start to move to stabilization, and then you quickly start to move to the phase of putting the plan together of rebuilding."
Sarno has reached out to the mayor of Lawrence to offer assistance, and advised him to keep track of all expenditures so he can apply for federal and state money.
The mayor also instructed Springfield officials to meet with Columbia Gas -- the company involved in both incidents -- and get an update on maintenance work.