Downtown fire closes three businesses

Was it really necessary to send 45 firefighters and in the range of 12 firetrucks to a kitchen fire? I watched the majority of the event from across the street and couldn't quite see why so many resources were needed. I'm sure there's more that goes into that decision to call in trucks from Belmont and Redwood city. I'd like to hear it.

The fire alarm came in from an occupied structure which dictates an automatic 3 engine response. When it was determined that the fire was in the attic space and could easily spread to adjacent structures then additional resources were called in. It is much better to have too many resources when lives and property are at stake than to find yourself with a fire that had spread via the attic to adjacent structures and not have the resources to quickly extinguish that fire.
Essentially what you are complaining about is that the firefighters first on the scene did a great job - but that was not guaranteed at the time that they called for backup. Would you have preferred they waited until the fire got out of control and spread to other structures?

I once remember making an emergency landing at Oakland Airport as the pilot of a single engine plane with only two people on board - I was very pleased to see three very big fire engines standing back until I landed safely.