Hi Nige,
You know as well as I do, having been out for 4 years now tho, that the reduced fire cover made it poss to do many jobs that would otherwise would have fallen by the wayside. Lets face it most of the airports we have been to together in Africa might have had fire cover, but I never expected much from them.
I feel it would not be poss to carry enough equipment to do anything more than give you a little more time to evac the aircraft. Nothing faster than a pair of scared aircrew legs. I'm also lead to believe that the strips would be far too exposed to leave fire personnel on.
Sh!t happens. Just glad beyond belief that all legged it in the correct manor.