Date: Wed, 24 Jan 90 13:03:58 CST From: Will Martin Subject: Fire Cuts Off St. Louis-area Phone Service The following is paraphrased from news reports on local TV news and from an article in the St. Louis Sun dated today: Just before 5 PM Monday, three boys aged 10 - 13 threw a burning plastic bag on cables that run under a railroad bridge in Pagedale, a St. Louis suburb. The cables caught fire and the boys first tried to put them out and then panicked and ran. The result of the burning cables was that 70,000 SW Bell customers in St. Charles county (just next to St. Louis) had their phone service affected in various ways. About 2200 housholds in Pagedale itself lost phone service for 24 hours; many other regions had sporadic service during the repair effort. Problems were reported as far away as Poplar Bluff and Kansas City; local calls to areas of St. Charles experienced delays and difficulties. Many calls from the St. Charles area were rerouted through cables normally used only for St. Louis, causing telephone delays, intercept "all lines busy" recordings, or fast busy signals. 911 was affected, but the St. Charles county sheriff's department stated that SW Bell did a "good job" rerouting emergency calls to other lines. An industrial park near the site had no phone service most of Tuesday; the local TV news reported on a package-delivery service that lost their communication lines between their office and their dispatching transmitter site on top a local office building. They moved their dispatchers to the transmitter location and were able to continue operations that way (luckily the weather was mild enough that people could work in the unheated rooftop compartment). People who were without telephone service for more than 24 hours will be credited for the loss on next month's bill. The three boys have been arrested and charged with the crime. (I wonder if SW Bell will send their parents a bill? :-) Regards, Will Martin