Now if person half way across the map decides to fight fire it is reserved to that pawn and everybody will be running back and forth more then actually fight fire.
Wouldn't it be better if pawn who decides to extinguish a square would issue the order to walk closer to the place where the fire begun if he is too far away. It would have bring all fire-fighters together in case of emergency without letting half of the colony burn away.
I'd need to check the changelog to be sure but I believe a fix for firefighting is already ready for the next alpha If I remember right, pawns can overwrite other pawn's reservations when it comes to extinguishing fire. So even if colonist X is all the way across the map and running to extinguish a fire, colonist Y can beat him to the punch and put it out first