[Linwood]

I have been a firefighter for 30 plus years -
standard procedure is to use a spanner wrench, it has a special slot in it, to turn off gas at meter- - most firefighters carry one in a pocket
my guess on their tactics was it became untenable inside so they backed out and went into defensive mode - sometime you simply can not get it from inside because of the chance of collapse - personnel safety, if no life in danger, is the primary responsibility of any fire officer and crew - it is dangerous enough without trying to showboat,
Peace