Narrative:

Aircraft X was an emergency inbound to runway xxl. He did a low approach over runway xxl so we could check his gear status. It appeared down. The flm called the alert and the emergency vehicles responded to their standby positions and the fun began. The fire chief was instructed to go to the emergency frequency. He was transmitting on it but [not] receiving. The flm called the airport to coordinate since the aircraft was on a 6 mile final and wanted the vehicles to follow him down the runway after he landed. The fire chief gets the emergency information. The aircraft landed and rolled to the end and turned off at taxiway papa and held short of runway xxr. I was working local and had an aircraft in position on the runway. I know not to roll when the fire department is on the field because you never know what they will do. A couple vehicles were on my frequency so I crossed them. A couple vehicles were on the other local and a couple were talking to the flm on the handheld radio we use for airport operations. All vehicles needed to cross an active runway to respond to the aircraft X. Wouldn't it be safer if they were all on the same frequency? Every single time the fire department is on the field it's a comedy of errors. This must stop. Let the fire department listen to a tape of this event. Put all vehicles on the same frequency. Schedule a drill on the airport. Have the fire department monitor in the tower.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Tower Controller described an event when emergency vehicles responding to an aircraft in difficulty were on several different frequencies attempting to cross an active runway; which created confusion during the emergency response.

Narrative: Aircraft X was an emergency inbound to Runway XXL. He did a low approach over Runway XXL so we could check his gear status. It appeared down. The FLM called the alert and the emergency vehicles responded to their standby positions and the fun began. The Fire Chief was instructed to go to the emergency frequency. He was transmitting on it but [not] receiving. The FLM called the airport to coordinate since the aircraft was on a 6 mile final and wanted the vehicles to follow him down the runway after he landed. The Fire Chief gets the emergency information. The aircraft landed and rolled to the end and turned off at Taxiway Papa and held short of Runway XXR. I was working Local and had an aircraft in position on the runway. I know not to roll when the Fire Department is on the field because you never know what they will do. A couple vehicles were on my frequency so I crossed them. A couple vehicles were on the other local and a couple were talking to the FLM on the handheld radio we use for airport operations. All vehicles needed to cross an active runway to respond to the Aircraft X. Wouldn't it be safer if they were all on the same frequency? Every single time the Fire Department is on the field it's a comedy of errors. This must stop. Let the Fire Department listen to a tape of this event. Put all vehicles on the same frequency. Schedule a drill on the airport. Have the Fire Department monitor in the Tower.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.