That's because there's not enough water for firefighters to fight big fires. About 30,000 residents in Bargersville and Whiteland in Johnson County are especially on edge.

The worry is what's not inside the water tower at State Road 135 and Stones Crossing Road.

It usually stores 30 feet of water reserves. Now it has just 4 feet.

For the past two weeks, residents served by Bargersville Utilities are using water faster than the company can treat it.

"We have every pump we have, every filter running," explained Michael Davis, Bargersville utilities superintendent. "But customers are continually taking from our reserves, and we're not able to replenish that."

The low levels mean low water pressure at homes. But worse -- it means critically low water reserves for firefighters, especially a concern with several apartment complexes near the depleted water tower.

In fact, if one of the apartments did catch fire, firefighters would only have five minutes' worth of water to fight it.

"That's not going to save an apartment complex," Davis told RTV6's Tanya Spencer.

Firefighters would have to truck in water from miles away. That's a definite concern to residents who live in those apartments, such as Kwaneisha Rothwell, who just moved to Indiana two weeks ago.

"It is scary. Coming from North Carolina, we really didn't have to worry about that. So being up here, and the first thing I have to worry about is a fire since I got here, it's pretty scary," Rothwell told Spencer.

"I mean, that definitely scares you, knowing there's not water to be used if there was a fire," said resident Scott Napp. "As dry as it's been, any flick of a cigarette could start a lawn fire. So hopefully everybody's doing the right thing and being smart and conserving water."

And with no end to the dry weather in sight, it's a danger residents in central Indiana will face for quite some time.

Bargersville homeowner Sam Kanalas hopes residents will listen to the water company's pleas.

"Especially now with the fire threat all over the place, they better pay attention to it," Kanalas said.

The utility has issued a "level-one priority emergency conservation" request asking that residents only water their lawns every other weekday, and not on weekends or holidays.

If residents don't voluntarily comply, the utility will have to issue an order banning watering, and Davis said they don't want to have to do that.