UPDATE: Verizon Outages May Hinder 911 Access

by Karen Goff — June 9, 2016 at 2:20 pm 11 Comments

The Fairfax County’s 911 Center says the Verizon fiber line damaged in last night’s pole fire in Reston may be limiting access to 911 services in the area today.

Verizon has been working on correcting the problem, which has been causing cable, cell and phone issues since the fire at about 6:30 p.m. last night.

A utility pole caught fire near Home Depot Wednesday, knocking out power to the area around Baron Cameron Avenue and Reston Parkway.

The intersection and nearby traffic lights were closed for about two hours, making for slow traffic at one of Reston’s busiest intersections. The intersection was closed again at mid-day today as crews continue to try and fix the issue.

Verizon customer service has given varying reports of when service will be restored. They said earlier today that it would be back by noon, but that has not happened as of 1:30 p.m.

Reports now vary from 3:45 p.m. to tomorrow morning.

@VerizonSupport any update on Reston, VA outage? VZ site says 345pm in one place and 745am tomorrow in another! What should I believe?

— Reed Meyer (@ReedMeyer) June 9, 2016

Some AT&T customers are also reporting issues.

.@attcares What’s up in Sterling/Herndon/Reston VA? Multiple phones down since at least 9:30AM EDT — Greg Pinto (@pilampinto) June 9, 2016

Brad

Words I never thought I’d say: “I’m glad I have Comcast!”
- Karen Furbish
  
  I have Verizon for all services (Fios) here in South Reston, and have not experienced any issues. In fact, I received a phone call earlier today with a message warning me about potential problems reaching 911 as a result of the fire. I also have a wireless phone, so I could use it if needed.
  - Fred Swartzendruber
    
    I was told by a Verizon around noon today that they expect service back by 2.00am Friday.
Phil Lilienthal

Ironically, I thought I was hedging my bets with phone and internet with Verizon and iPad with AT&T!
Expat

The tweet from Reed Meyer says “345pm” and “745am”, while the article says it should be restored between “345pm and 745pm”. Can someone clarify which is correct?
- Karen Goff
  
  probably 7:45 a.m. Will double check and fix
  - Lynne
    
    Has anyone discerned the cause of this fire? I just called Dominion VA Power and they will not give me the information . . . suggested that the reporting media outlet follow-up.
Greg

All the more reason to bury those ugly lines.
Guest

Don’t you just LOVE the durability and redundancy in our communications system? What would happen if 2 poles went up in smoke, fell over, or whatever?
dandiprat

The live chat told me there was no problem in the area and wanted to send a technician. I provided the link to this article and they went to check and told me things would be better by 3:15am
OldBlindDog

Another example of single point of failure.

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