Fire Knocks Out Phones Near S.F.
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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO — Phones in 27,000 homes and businesses on the San Francisco Peninsula were still not working Tuesday after a fire in a Pacific Bell manhole knocked out service Monday afternoon.
The phone company offered 300 cellular phones and extra public pay phones to help with the shortages in South San Francisco and other parts of San Mateo County.
The pay phones were hooked up to repaired lines, which could have been routed to homes but would not have served as many people, said Pacific Bell spokesman John Britton.
The fire happened in San Bruno, when workers at the Bay Area Rapid Transit extension project were removing steel supports from a construction site, Britton said. A welder’s torch is believed to have caused the blaze, he said.
Twenty-seven Pacific Bell cables were destroyed in the fire, and Pacific Bell officials have promised that crews will work around the clock to repair the damage. Still, officials say that could take several days.
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