It was a loud siren sound around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night that jolted Battleford residents throughout the town.
As it turned out, the reason the town’s siren went off was due to a break-in at the town’s parks shop, formerly its fire hall, on 4th Avenue.
According to Geoff Thompson, deputy fire chief in Battleford, the suspects had smashed the front windows of the building and were able to enter.
Once inside, they were “trying to access our power, for some reason,” said Thompson.
“And they turned around and went through it all until they got to the last panel – the old siren that we used for fires back in the old days to respond to the fire hall.”
“They accidentally flicked that switch on – it probably gave them the shock of a lifetime, because it would take five or ten seconds to start activating and then there’s a super-loud military siren going off. So that made them evacuate the building pretty quickly.”
The suspects escaped via the side door, according to Thompson.
It did not appear as if any items were stolen.
The theory is they were attempting to turn the pumps on for the fuel, but “that’s pure speculation,” Thompson added.
The loud sirens were heard from as far away as West Park and possibly farther. There were calls from people who thought the sound was coming from St. Vital School, but in fact the sound reverberated off of buildings in the area.
The fire department and the RCMP arrived on the scene and it was Thompson who shut the siren off.
Police have been investigating and there is no word yet if any suspects have been caught.
