July 19, 2000 www.timesofindia.com Patna plane crash wakes up city fire force Staff Reporter BANGALORE: State fire force officials held a high-level meeting here on Tuesday to review arrangements at state airports in case there's a plane crash like the one in Patna on Monday. DGP (fire force), K. Srinivasan hurriedly convened the meeting of senior officers to take stock of the situation. Srinivasan was confident that compared to Patna, the city is better equipped to deal with such calamities. ``We have 11 fire service stations and a foam tender to douse the flames. Apart from that, HAL airport authorities have a foam tender, few fire and crash tenders which can break concrete structures like walls and buildings to reach the spot.´´ HAL authorities modernised fire combat measures after a plane crash in the city in 1991. Over 100 people died then because fire and crash tenders couldn't reach the spot, located a few yards away from the airport compound, on time. Recently, when a building housing the customs department warehouse, just a stone's throw away from the airport, caught fire, over 16 fire tenders from HAL and the state fire force department rushed in no time and doused the flames.
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