I think the whole issue with this original post, was that the nearest brigade was not responded at all, while a brigade further away was.....
Obviously there was an issue with that - be it a goof up by whoever dispatched the call, or the information was incorrect in the database used, or something else.
But surely, getting an appliance and crew - that is almost any appliance (in that area it is a minimum of a 24) - to the call is of utmost importance...if the alarm had turned out to be set off by smoke / fire, at least a crew could do something - even if it is a matter of locate the fire, isolate the power, and undertake some defensive attack...until the Pumper, or whatever the next closest appliance is, actually arrives....
And by the way, pumpers are classified by their pump capacity - from memory, in CFS there is only one "Heavy Pumper" being Mt Barker Pumper (the Dennis)...the 24P & 34P's are classified as medium pumpers, as are the so called "type 2" pumpers...although their pumping capacity varies....I can't remember what the actual capacities actually are tho'.....I'll ask those who do know, and get an answer back....
Pip