[Slings and Arrows]

They could be over-responding to make themselves look busy. In one town where I lived, even the simplest 911 call got you police, a fire truck, and an ambulance.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

My town has 5500 people and only a couple of full time firefighters/emts on call. We do have a stretch of Interstate through the town, the nearest hospital is about ten miles away, so the taxi rides to the hospital in a town ambulance, billed to the insurance companies, pay the freight.

[Steve_Seattle]

"They could be over-responding to make themselves look busy. In one town where I lived, even the simplest 911 call got you police, a fire truck, and an ambulance."

Over-responding seems to be SOP these days. Recently an obese man was bumped by a car in a supermarket parking lot and went down to the pavement. There were three police cars, two aid cars, two fire engines, including a hook-and-ladder truck, and a fire chief car.

[Squawk 8888]

A guy who did contract work for me was a volunteer firefighter in his home town, and he said whenever there’s a fatal crash they refer to their response as “the show”. There’s nothing practical to do but it’s all hands on deck to reassure the public that they’re on top of things.