Mt Molloy firefighters receive public apology over water shortage blame
Mareeba Shire Council has apologised to local firefighters after wrongly blaming them for draining Mt Molloy’s reservoir when a water main break was the actual cause.
Mt Molloy’s firefighters have received an extraordinary public apology after being wrongly blamed for a water shortage that wasn’t their fault.
Mareeba Shire Council was forced to correct a statement it made about low water pressure levels and an empty Mt Molloy reservoir being caused by water usage during recent firefighting efforts.
It was actually caused by a burst water main.
On Thursday, the council said the Mt Molloy reservoir had refilled overnight and was now at 80% after the water main was repaired.
The council had to truck water to the reservoir to refill it after it was empty on Wednesday.
“This statement was incorrect and did not cause the outage for the reservoir or the low water pressure issues, this was caused by a water main leak which was located today and has now been repaired,” a council spokeswoman said.
“Council would like to sincerely apologise to the Mt Molloy Rural Fire Brigade and highlight that we greatly appreciate the important work firefighters do to protect the community.”
Free bottled water will be available from the Mt Molloy General Store from 3pm to 6pm today.
The updates came after more than a week of notices warning residents of low pressure and volume at the Mount Molloy reservoir due to “recent firefighting efforts”.
Mount Molloy is about 40km north of Mareeba.
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Originally published as Mt Molloy firefighters receive public apology over water shortage blame
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