they must have been stretched thin and many outside companies must have come from outside immediate area. This takes amazing amount of coordination! No idea how they pull it off but bless them all for doing what they do! I hope everyone stays safe, gas fires with explosions must be terrifying!

Of all the people in a situation like this there are none more stressed and more critical to the response than those dispatchers and telecommunicators who are working the 911 lines and the radios, answering calls and getting the right people to the right places.

When they send a fire engine to a location those firefighters only have to worry about that one scene. But when there are 30-40-50-60-70 simultaneous incidents in their district they have to field every 911 call, set priorities, send what assets they have, start calling adjacent municipalities and calling for mutual aid from those who they have agreements with and then reaching out even further begging help from other agencies.

If you have never seen the insides of a 911 call center and dispatch center when the shit really hits the fan, it’s a sight to behold. Real professionals who are the unseen key to making every bit of that response work, doing so under immersive stress and pressure. Because the 911 lines never stop ringing, and as the same time you have radio calls that need to be sent and answered and non-911 phone calls to summon help that must be made.

Yes they're calling in help from neighboring towns and in this case even farther away.

But to some extent, they have to be making painful decision, such as controlling a house fire until they're confident it won't spread to neighboring houses, then leaving it to finish burning down while they pack up and move on to another fire.

good 45 min with no response.

My husband is a firefighter and we are in one of the mutual aid towns. His dept. covered fire station(s) in one of the towns while the local fire dept responded to fires (since they know the town, where hydrants are and could respond quicker).