From the photos I saw of the location of the monorail, it was probably sitting right over the walking path or at least close enough that the fire department needed the room.
The boat launches were completely overwhelmed, which is why we gave up and went back to our room.
That being said, I would never want Disney to put any guest or emergency worker at risk. It just took a surprisingly long time to resolve the situation.
And like I said in my initial post: I really think Disney should put up signs at the GF entrances that the monorail is out of service, so people can know without having to trek up to the second floor to check each time. Because it was out long after the silver monorail had been towed away. (Also, there should be something in the MDE app as well!)
That would have been my go to because the ferry at the TTC is such a big boat & can move lots of people v. the much smaller gold flag GF/Poly resort boats, although it is a bit of a hike to get to the TTC from the GF.
I’m curious - was the Epcot monorail still running?