Fine, so you are an extremely rare exception - a person who can throw a rock at the fire station. Would you say your family and friends who do not benefit from such proximity are foolish for having such unnecessary instruments of protection in their homes when there are people to protect them from fires?

Of course you wouldn't. Firearms are the fire extinguishers of crime.

Dude you should still have a fire extinguisher! It can mean the difference between putting out a small blaze and having to call the fire department to put out half your apartment! Even across the street, you still have to call, they have to receive it, get ready, move the truck over, hike up your stairs (if you have em) etc. Or what if worse, someone gets caught on fire? Or there's a grease fire (water can't put it out)?

Me thinks our friend may be fibbing in an attempt to punch his way out of the corner I pushed him into.

To further your point though: not having an extiguisher and depending on the 300 yard fire brigade for protection is just like not having a firearm for protection. It can be the difference between scaring off a criminal without firing a shot and your family having to call the coroner to mop you up.

In the course of the classes I took as a requisite for CCW, a city police officer came in and detailed the legality of handgun possession, CCW usage and response in my city. According to him, in 2006, an FBI survey came through to analyze the average response time to a 911 call in our city and it recommended additional staffing as a result of the discovery that following an emergency 911 call it takes police officers on average 14 minutes to respond to the location. I can put out a lot of fires in 14 minutes with my 'fire extinguisher'.