One of the things you learn as a pilot is how to recognize that you need to go into emergency mode if you will. Call it high-alert if you want.

You need to recognize when something is out of the ordinary and treat it as an emergency (perhaps not a literal pan-pan/mayday emergency) sooner rather than later, and do things that may end up to have been unnecessary (like executing a go-around because emergency vehicles were on the move).

One controller on two frequencies is another example - that works fine in normal situations, but during an emergency response, perhaps the channels should be mixed; giving the pilots in the air a chance to hear the incorrect clearance onto their runway.

After all, an active runway is really more of an "air" control thing than a ground one.