I called the police once for an incipient fight with no visible weapons (it was midnight. they were on my porch. ewwww.) and they showed up with four cruisers. Four. (Which, by the way, made me feel awfully safe: instantaneous response, plus eight cops who had nothing better to do at midnight than break up a fight...)

So it might have just been that the firefighters had nothing better to do.

I could also believe that a brief power surge or power outage in that densely commercial an area could trigger a lot of fire alarms and automated fire-department-calling systems.