10.15.17 Northern California wildfires: Update from Pacific Market President Jonathan LeCompte

This week’s wildfires continue to wreak havoc across Northern California. As of this morning, an estimated 75,000 people remain evacuated across the state, down from an initial count of 90,000. Sixteen wildfires in the region have now burned more than 200,000 acres.

Our teams have been working around the clock to make sure our customers and first responders stay connected. While there is still work to do, 99% of our network is in service throughout the impact areas.

We’re working with our partners to restore fiber transport (connectivity) and commercial power where infrastructure was damaged by the fires. We’ve deployed temporary equipment, such as cells on wheels (COWs), cells on light trucks (COLTs), satellite picocells on trailers (SPOTs) and repeaters on trailers (RATs) to increase capacity.

As the fires continue to burn, first responders are working tirelessly to save lives and protect property. We can’t thank them enough for putting everything on the line for our communities. Our employees also want to help, so they’ve set up cell phone charging stations and internet-connected laptops at some of the local evacuation centers for guests to use while they are away from home.

Progress has been made, but it’s not over.

With so many displaced residents still waiting to return home, we hope that our data relief offer will provide a little peace of mind.

You can support the community by using your mobile phone to make a $10 donation to the American Red Cross. Simply text CAWILDFIRES to 90999. You can donate up to ten times per month, so you can make that $10 donation ten times, for a total of $100.