Calm the beans Verci - this isn't your usual measured reply - I reckon you're being rather unfair to Burnie & his pals !
At my last place of employment, if you waited till an aircraft was out of FL100 before hitting the button, it could normally be only 25 miles from touchdown. The local authority fire station is 3 3/4 miles away, all but the last 1/2 mile being through busy urban streets, so most times 'blues & two's" would be very necessary.
I have no idea what the Fire Service instructions are for response to a "Full Emergency" but surely the more notice they get, the better, for all sorts of reasons, not least the need to reassign vehicles from another area as temporary cover ?!
It would probably help if someone would decide that the response for a 1 pob PA28 needn't be the same as a B777 with 320 pob !
Edited to add "you just beat me to it Burnie!"
