The Firefighters Won't Come!

[Orbit]

Well, today my sim started a fire while cooking.  The maid and the gardener were there when it happened.  It set the fire fire alarm off, but after 2 sim hours they still hadn't come.  I called the Fire Station twice, and they still didn't come.  So I used JM's lot debugger to save and get help.  The only reason I can think of why the firefighters won't come is the cars of the maid and the gardener are in the street, taking up most of the space on the road, so the fire truck can't come.  Why won't the firefighter's come?  How can I fix this?

[simmiecal]

How can I fix this?

Don't have the maid and gardner there when you start a fire. 

[Orbit]

How can I fix this?

Don't have the maid and gardner there when you start a fire. 

Thanks, that helps me a lot.   

[Pilot]

That's exactly why the firefighets won't come. I had a s imilar situation where my sim would not return from work becasue the maid and gardner had gotten stuck. You can try to "dismiss" both the maid and gardner, or moveobjects to move the cars out of the way. Carful with moveobjects though.
Oh, if you have Uni I would buy the sprinkler instead. May be more of a hassel afterwards, but it puts out the fire for sure (without having to worry about portal blockades).

[baratron]

What expansion packs do you have? and did you install the newest University/Nightlife patch?

I might be talking out of my arse, here, but:
a) I thought the fire engine and police car pulled up on the opposite side of the road to where the Maid and Gardener park,
b) I know that I've "happily" had 5 Nanny cars on the lot at the same time without affecting the other service vehicles. (Was playing the Ethiopian Challenge, and needed a Nanny on the lot at all times to stop the Social Worker taking my starving baby! In a panic, I hired way too many of them!), and
c) it's definitely possible to have the Maid, Gardener and Nanny all on the lot at the same time.

So I'm thinking the problem could be portal deletion.

If you have Open For Business or University/Nightlife patched with the second official Maxis patch, you should be ok - but Crammyboy has warned that cloned (custom-content) bookshelves won't have been updated by the patch, as they have unique GUIDs and the patch wouldn't recognise them. He also found a second portal deletion problem, due to juggling.

The best thing to do is check out those portal threads, imo.

[dawnkeeper]

Why won't the firefighter's come?  How can I fix this?

I know that the one time I had that happen there was a service person there and their car was in the road. It was during a party and most of the guests and most the house burned up. I was like WTF?!! I kept calling them over and over again. Nothing.

Anyway I finally just called it a loss and had someone later buy the property. As soon as the taxi pulled away from dropping them at their new house the fire truck caming roaring on scene!! Haha!! A little late! I almost died from laughter when I got lectured for calling them when there was no fire.

In the end I would try to delete any service cars and the emergency vehicles might show up? I am not sure.

[radiophonic]

You can fix the problem by clicking on the fire and selecting "Extinguish"