Why would an airport fire appliance respond away from the airport?

I live about 3 miles away from the airport. An airport fire appliance came past my house, with blues and twos and an escort.





I thought that airport appliances don't leave airports since they have to give 24 hour cover to the runway.





Nothing in the media.





Is this common or a rarity?|||It is nothing uncommon to call emergency equipment in to play when other local equipment is busy on other cases ot temporarily out of service.





It is done all the time





Mike





|||Most airport security is local cops. Very few airports have their own police force.





When you see an airport fire truck outside the airport, that is extremely rare. You are correct, they are always manned because airports operate 24 hours a day. I would have to say in your case though that perhaps local authorities outside the airport requested the additional backup and the airport could spare the equipment.





I've been working in airports for over 10 years and I live near one, and I've never seen the airport police/fire outside the airport streets.|||Very recently, a gasoline tanker truck exploded on I-880 in Oakland. The Oakland Fire Department asked for, and received, the use of one of the large foam trucks from the Oakland Airport to help put out the blaze.