Residents will rally together
MOUNT ISA Mayor Tony McGrady believes his tightknit community will rally together in the wake of an unimaginable tragedy.
Charlie Hinder, 39, and his children, believed to be Nyobi, 7, and River, 4, were killed in a caravan explosion that shook the entire town yesterday.
Cr McGrady rushed back from a State Government planning summit in Brisbane yesterday to support the community during this “terrible, terrible time”.
“My community are a closeknit community; we will rally and do all we can to assist.”
Cr McGrady said the deaths would hit the northwest Queensland town of 23,000 residents hard.
“These things happen in big cities, to some extent they’re anonymous,” he said.
“But when they happen in small communities such as ours it’s all the more hurtful.”
Cr McGrady said to the families of those affected, “on behalf of my city, I send our deep condolences to them and we all stand ready to do what we can to assist in this terrible, terrible time”.
Mount Isa MP Rob Katter was in the town yesterday and said the site of the explosion was a “confronting scene” that would remain in the minds of the community for some time to come.
“Any loss of life is a tragedy, but the nature of this one, an explosion in suburbia, everyone is rattled by it,” he said.