Prince George, B.C. – It was a fire at Clancy’s restaurant and gas bar south of Lac La Hache this morning which is responsible for the  Shaw Cable outage  experienced by  thousands of Shaw cable customers from 100 Mile House north.

 

There is another, more serious issue associated with this fire, and that is the loss of Telus service in that area. Telus spokesperson Shawn Hall says the fire damaged a significant fibre optic line, which provides landline service for 9-1-1 service. The good news is, the wirele3ss service is not impacted “People can use their cell phones to call 9-1-1. We have been in contact with emergency service personnel and with the Regional Districts (which provide the 9-1-1 services) and they are aware of the situation.”

 

Hall says there are crews on scene right now trying to make the necessary repairs to the fibre optic line, and he anticipates the line will be back up and running by this evening. The damage to the line has also impacted long distance calling, but has not had any effect on local calls in that area. Hall says  there are 3300 customers impacted by this line damage, and they are located in Williams Lake, Lac La Hache, 93 Mile and parts of 100 Mile House. “We have a redundant wireless services, so that in the 3event something happens to the wired service, people still have access to 9-1-1 service” says Hall.

 

The Regional District of Fraser Fort George has a contract to supply  9-1-1 services to the Cariboo Region. General Manager of Community Services, Donna Munt, says the 9-1-1 Operations Communications Centre, which is located at the North District RCMP office in Prince George,  is prepared to accept wireless ( cell calls) and has either cell, or satellite radio connections with emergency services to ensure there is a way to get through to the necessary services.

 

As for the Shaw cable repairs,  the service came back on line aroound 3:30 this afternoon.