I departed from my maintenance base which was a mixed use ANG and civilian field. They had just worked on my voltage regulator/alternator and I smelled and saw a wisp of smoke on takeoff. I tell the tower I'm coming back to land and shutting off hte master now. As I'm on final approach I see the entire ANG CFR heading down to the approach end of the runway and then they chased me down as I rolled out. I was concerned that I might get drowned in AFFF.
Having spent some days doing foam training with the guys at BWI, I know that to be effective, they need to be on scene within 30 seconds and ready to flow foam. I don't begrudge them jumping the gun at times.