When the Havelock North fire siren went off at 8pm on Wednesday, there were likely some gasps around town.
The Hawke's Bay suburb has been left reeling over the past week by a grisly homicide - a woman's body burned in a car parked by the Tukituki River.
It'sa tragedy compounded because the body was left sitting in a taped-off car for an extra two days after an identification error by police who first looked at it.
Havelock North is a growing behemoth, but at its heart it's still a village and every time the volunteer brigade's rather antiquated siren goes off, it stirs up interest.
Police forensics at the scene where a body was found in a burnt out car on the outskirts of Havelock North. Photo / Neil Reid
Normally it's a "what's that" query but this week it's been more of the "what now" sighs. What else could befall us?
Which is why I have a rueful admission to make - it was me, your paper's editor, who set off the fire siren on Wednesday night.
The night was normal and I was dropping my two girls (4 and 1) back home to their mum when a parenting disaster struck in the driveway - I opened the door and accidentally hit the central locking.
The oldest was already out of the car and shut her door just fine. I didn't notice everything was locked when I also shut my door.
However, when I went around to get the youngest out of her car seat, I definitely noticed. Bugger.
The keys to the car were sitting tantalisingly on the front passenger seat, but I had no easy way to reach them without potentially traumatising my child.
A call to AA seemed the solution, but after a minute or two of waiting for its "child locked in a vehicle" line to be answered, firefighters became the obvious option.
I'd seen them training as I'd driven past, and sure enough they came quickly after the siren went off.
A shout out to the crew. I won't divulge the details of how they got in, but it was fast, efficient, and definitely didn't require the jaws of life.
As for my daughter - she was pretty comfortable with hanging out in the car seat for 15 minutes, and she couldn't believe her luck at getting to see a blazing lights fire truck full of grinning firefighters coming to save her.
It's now a funny story for her 21st, and one we plan to pay off with a pizza or three for the team at the station.
Mistakes happen. They do. I feel immense sadness for the woman found in the burnt-out car, and I also feel empathy for the officer or officers who first visited River Rd.
Of course their inaction on this occasion is not a good look. But errors can happen at any time, in any place, no matter whose hat you're wearing. A pile-on of nonconstructive criticism won't help anything now.
Our emergency services in Hawke's Bay are still backed by the people they serve. The next time we need their help, trust them.
