COKATO, Minn. — Members of the Cokato Fire Department are a bit hot under the collar, and it has nothing to do with the flames they regularly face.
A post on the department's Facebook page Wednesday is calling out a vandal – or vandals – who opened up fire hydrants across the community late Saturday into early Sunday, wasting more than a million gallons of water and dropping Cokato's water pressure to dangerously low levels.
Firefighters were summoned to close the hydrants between 11:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m., during a time period when a number of their colleagues were already responding to a serious vehicle crash in the area. In a press release on Thursday, officials said they believed five hydrants were opened and left running.
The large amount of water drained from the system resulted in residents waking up to low water pressure in their homes Sunday morning. Releasing that much water could also damage roadways, property and cause potential flooding concerns.
"It's kind of endangering all the people in the area in case there was a fire," said Public Works Director Jeff DeGrote said. "There would be no water for it."
This is also frustrating for them since this isn't the first time this has happened.
"This happened about three years ago, but it was on a smaller scale," DeGrote said.
Because of the open hydrants and how much water was emptied, many residents woke up to lower water pressure.
"This is no joke, this is a serious matter and if juveniles are involved they need to be held responsible for this," reads the post, clearly angry in tone. "This is depleting our water supply in town, which can be a major threat if a fire would occur."
The post added that not only would the perpetrators be held accountable if identified, parents could face legal consequences if their children are responsible.
Anyone with information on the opening of the hydrants or who may be responsible is asked to call the Wright County Sheriff's Department at 763-682-7600.
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