Burned fiber-optic lines cause communication outage

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif.-A small fire that started at 4p.m. last Thursday caused big problems for internet users through Saturday.

The so-called 64-acre Riverview Fire that burned near the 246 West of Buellton is 100 percent contained but locals are still talking about its impact.

Santa Barbara County's Office of Emergency Management Director Kelly Hubbard said fiber lines on utility poles burned making if difficult for the county to getting information to residents.

"I know we were a little slow to get information out."

She said they are now aware that some communication services went down before the fire.

"The communications outage was largely due to fiber lines burning and melting in the fire, there was eight utility poles that burned," said Hubbard.

People with Comcast, Frontier, Xfinity, and Verizon were impacted for 24-48 hours.

Some even missed seeing the Dodger win on Friday night due to the communication outage.

"We know we had power outage to a small pocket of the community but we also had a communication outage too, " said Hubbard, " We believe at minimum cities of Lompoc, Buellton, Solvang and most of Santa Ynez Valley including part of Los Alamos at different times."

Hubbard lives in the area, too.

"I lost service I was on a call right at 4 so I know when I lost it and I didn't get service back until Saturday."

She said it is a reminder to talk to neighbors and drive to fire and police stations if needed.

"I want them to talk to their neighbors and work as a community to share information and get to know each other and hopefully some have gotten information maybe they were down at work and they heard about it while they were somewhere that does have service."

She said text 911 is an option.

"If you have an emergency know you can text 911 and register for Ready SBC, we know a lot o people had text messaging ability and we sent a reverse notification via text. so those are some of the things we might be able to do."

Hubbard left home to get the message out.

"I couldn't get internet couldn't talk to my staff about what was happening, I'm supposed to be helping with fire response and I couldn't get service, right, so I went to the airport and stood on a hill to get services and pulled out a satellite phone I have resource other don't have"

She said businesses including her favorite pastry shop couldn't charge customer the way they are used to doing.

The owner of CrossFit Santa Ynez Valley, Gio Murru, could smell the smoke from his business.

"Nobody could access the website no one could sign up for classes no one could call or text me."

Max Maag said it impacted him and his family.

"It was tough to communicate with my family, I wanted to go check on them to make sure they were alright."

It forced people to take a break from the internet and social media.

Murru said he ended up reading for a change.

"At night I didn't mind I actually had dinner grabbed a book and read for three hours."

Maag said it was easier to unwind.

Those with landlines have better access to information.

The cause of the fire that was a made up of more than a dozen spot fires is still under investigation.

Your News Channel will have more on the communication outages on the news.