Call the Fire department!

If you live in a high rise apartment, you'll know that boilers overheat all the time. Generally the fire department makes an appearance to make sure that's all it is and can correct the situation pretty easily. So yesterday the apartment building across the street had that familiar beeping from their panel in the lobby. The fire department attended.
With total overkill.
On our street below, Hamilton Street in Vancouver, we had FOUR huge ladder trucks, ONE large fire truck, TWO Fire dept cars, and FOUR ambulances! All with lights flashing and sirens wailing.
AND, directly below the apartment, and across the street on the corner, is a firehall.
ELEVEN vehicles! Do these guys get paid by the call? However do eleven vehicles get called at the same time? However do four ambulances get called and roar up with sirens blazing when the first two ambulances have been there for five minutes?
Can you say co-ordination of resources?