I was listening to tower freq while this was going on and it seemed like the crew didn't know there was still a fire. CFR got to the aircraft in short order and foamed it. With the fire contained quick do you think the crew might have thought it more dangerous to have 140 pax pushing their way towards the slides?
Would the hyd system failure explain the nose gear not coming down the first time around? I thought that they would all free-fall like the mains do (gear doors were open). They did a single engine go-around. As they flew past the tower the mains were down but the nose was not.