Originally Posted by
ERC
Donkeys years ago when I took my Fireman's badge in senior scouts at a fire station (a great course by the way; I learned and remembered a lot) as I understood it then, there was a system by which the nearest station would indeed cover the next along the system, by sending an appliance over as soon as an appliance was despatched. Obviously, somewhere along the chain, they might be a bit light, but they were very well organised.
Fortunately, we are just around the corner from the Birkenhead station, but I still dread to think what could happen in a timber framed house.