The accidental setting off of the old fire alarm in Battleford just over two weeks ago is still a topic of conversation.
Monday evening during their regular council meeting, Battleford town councillors were talking about the break-in that resulted in a siren going off at 11:30 p.m. March 22. They noted that as far as they've heard no one has been caught.
The Town is looking into a new security system for the building topped by the siren – the parks and recreation workshop that used to be the community's fire hall. Located at the west end of 26th Street, next door to what is now the fire hall and to the Town's works department compound, the building was entered by a would-be burglar or burglars by smashing the front windows.
It is assumed, although not known for certain, that the culprits were trying to turn on the fuel pump in order to steal fuel when they turned on the breaker for the siren that was used to call firefighters to the fire hall back in what Deputy Fire Chief Geoff Thompson describes as "the old days."
Although it hasn't been used in years, it had never been disconnected.
When the siren went off, the intruders left by the side door. Nothing seems to have been taken.
RCMP and firefighters arrived at the scene and the siren was silenced, but not before scores of vehicles had cruised past the area to see what was going on. The alarm had been heard as far away as the Westpark subdivision.
"There must have been 60 cars," said Councillor Ames Leslie, who is also a volunteer firefighter.
Initially, he said, reports were that the alarm was coming from St. Vital School. But then it became clear it was actually the old fire alarm sounding.
