We've had a mutual aid system in place since the '50s and I can't remember anything like this happening, said Chris Trombley, deputy fire coordinator for Clinton County in New York.

Trombley said that in the past border agents cleared fire trucks on emergency calls in less than 30 seconds, although they sometimes asked firefighters to provide identification when they returned to Canada. He said that he and Michael LeBlanc, chief of the Rouses Point fire department, plan to meet with federal officials to discuss the situation.

The fire gutted the Anchorage Inn, a landmark restaurant in Rouses Point. The Canadian firefighters would not have been able to save the building but would have provided exhausted New York firefighters quicker relief by arriving sooner.

Written by United Press International