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 grain comes from farms.
What does that mean??
Fire departments who serve farms can get water from a lake instead of having to go all the way back to town. If you are in the city they will use fire hydrants but if not they have water trucks that refill at the nearest pond.
the grain elevator implies there are farms around so they would have this equipment.
Normally farms don’t have large pools of water and may only have enough pumping ability to supply their meager farm needs. They would at that rate be better off putting pumpers near a stream or other natural water source. Farms are rarely capable of supplying the amount of water needed for only 1 truck.
This is minnesota where lakes and ponds are everywhere.
The farms get drinking water from a well thet could not supply a fire truck. The ponds are still there and so fire trucks use them.