for a "slight delay'' in responding to an early morning fire in the Middletown area of Pembroke on Wednesday.

And the Services "categorically denied'' that the response was slow because the fire, at a barn, had occurred in Middletown.

A Pembroke resident complained that Fire Services had taken "their own sweet time'' in responding to the fire and that one "one truck did not even have any water''.

She suggested that the slow response was because the fire, which caused no injuries, was in Middletown.

But the Services countered: "The dispatcher received several calls reporting this fire. There was a slight delay in the response due to the dispatcher trying to determine the exact location of this fire. Two different locations were provided by the first two callers.'' Even so, the Services said, the first fire appliance had arrived at the 5.11 a.m. fire at 5.18 a.m. -- "a total of seven minutes after the initial call''.

And they added: "The allegation that a fire appliance arrived without any water, although highly unlikely in the case of those appliances that are capable of carrying water, is under investigation.''