Five kilometres of TELUS cables were damaged and 108 poles were burned east of 70 Mile House, according to Senior Communications Manager Liz Sauvé.
TELUS is and has been working hard to restore service to South Cariboo residents, she says.
“This has been a really challenging time for the province, and our team is working closely alongside emergency responders to maintain our critical communications infrastructure, and when necessary, repair damaged infrastructure as soon as it’s safe to do so.”
According to Sauvé, replacing burned poles is the first step along with any damaged lines, before restringing cables.
“As soon as the fire was out of the area and emergency crews told us it was safe, our technicians moved in and started working behind Hydro crews. We’ve been working throughout the weekend and we’re making good headway, but there’s still a bit more work to be done. We’re hopeful all services will be fully restored on Wednesday.”
“We do everything we can to maintain our infrastructure so that firefighters can communicate when they’re in the field, and residents can communicate with friends and family about their situation and whereabouts. For example, we work with firefighters to identify our critical infrastructure so that together we can do everything possible to keep them standing and maintain service. If commercial power to a cell site is lost, we have a team on standby that will drive into the danger zones with the support of fire crews and refuel generators to keep cell sites running.”
Additionally, TELUS has been, where possible, restoring service to evacuated areas before residents return and helping to set up free Wi-Fi and TV services at evacuation centres, according to Sauvé.
“This is certainly a fluid situation, but our crews are working as we speak to restore services ASAP.”