The fire services were not called for over 20 minutes, and even then the call did not originate from Summerland. Instead the first call came from a passing taxi driver, while another came from the captain of a ship offshore who radioed HM Coastguard and said, "It looks as if the whole of the Isle of Man is on fire". The coastguard immediately called the fire brigade. The first responding fire crews realised additional resources would be required and almost every resource available to the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service was mobilised to the incident (93 of its 106 firefighters and all 16 of its engines).