Firefighters needed so much water to battle a huge grain elevator blaze that they had to ask the whole town to go without — even canceling school to conserve the water supply, officials said.
The cause of the fire isn’t yet known; a fire marshal began an investigation. It took firefighters responding from 17 communities about eight hours to extinguish the blaze in the town of about 2,200 people, which was reported about 11 p.m. Sunday, said Hawley City Administrator Lonnie Neuner. No injuries were reported.
Firefighters even used water from the local golf course because the town’s water tower couldn’t keep up, Neuner said. Their ladder hoses each use about 600 gallons a minute, about as much as Hawley’s system can pump, Neuner said. He expected the city would allow water usage to resume “pretty soon.”
The question NONE of the school kids asked: How does cancelling school save water?
It’s a rural town, so maybe a lot of the kids live in the country and are on wells instead of the town’s water tower?
You’re probably right.
You don’t want a lot of people on a confined area with no water. I don’t think it’s about saving water as much as making sure there aren’t 100s of kids in a building with no water.