NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is investigating the circumstances behind the vandalism of a fiberoptic line that caused landline and cell outages around the North Coast and even impacted 911 systems.
Services to areas around northwest California – including Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma and Humboldt counties – were reported to have been impacted beginning on Thursday morning, with the issue appearing to have been resolved early Friday, officials said.
At 10:30 a.m. Thursday the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office experienced a disruption of telephone – including 911, landline and cellular – and Internet services throughout Mendocino County.
The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office said it began working with other allied public safety agencies – police, fire and emergency medical services to include Coastal Valley EMS – and the Sheriff’s Office Emergency Operations Center was opened.
During that time, a limited amount of communication methods were able to be put into place for the various public safety agencies to be able to receive and respond to public emergencies as needed, the agency said.
Calls into 911 were rerouted to the Cal Fire Howard Forest dispatch center for distribution to local public safety dispatch centers affected by the 911 service disruption, the sheriff's office said.
The Cal Fire Howard Forest dispatch center had been previously designated as a secondary dispatch center when one or more allied dispatch centers experience a disruption of 911 services or abilities, officials reported.
At 6:30 p.m. Thursday a deputy with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to contact representatives with AT&T in the Burke Hill area of Ukiah, according to the agency's Friday report.
Upon arrival the deputy learned AT&T had experienced a sudden disruption of fiber optic services at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, which affected telephone – 911, land-line and cellular – and Internet services for Mendocino County, officials reported.
Immediate efforts were made by AT&T to locate the cause and location of the disruption, which officials said ultimately was determined to be in a rural area approximately 1.5 miles south of Burke Hill Road in Ukiah.
Upon inspection of this area it was determined the fiberoptic line that was located above ground had been cut apart. At this time it is suspected the damage was caused as an intentional act of vandalism, the sheriff's office said.
At 3 a.m. Friday the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office noted a return of telephone services to their 911 emergency dispatch center, the agency reported.
The case remains under investigation and anyone with information that might assist in the identification of any suspect or suspects is urged to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Tip-Line by calling 707-234-2100.
Officials investigate vandalism to fiberoptic cable that affected North Coast cell, landline services
- Lake County News reports
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