As lowly SLF, I just want to add I'm utterly astounded by the seeming calmness of the passengers in the 1st video posted by MrSnuggles. I think I would have been screaming. It will be very interesting to learn what announcements were made to the pax and to what extent they were informed about / briefed how to handle the emergency. The passenger composition (nationalities) may be of interest.
I can't imagine a plane full of Americans sitting calmly in this situation, but as others have stated, unless the engines were off, aggressive passenger response to initiate an evacuation (as I'm sure would have happened in the US in the absence of a crew-initiated one) could have proved very dangerous.
As someone fascinated by sociology, this makes me realize once again the complexity of emergencies. You have not only the technical aspects, but the social aspect too. The technical situation / facts & risks of the emergency may be identical in two contexts, but the decisions made may differ significantly based on cultural factors and training.
Kudos to the fire crews for their excellent response which helped save 200+ lives.