County emergency services maintained through Friday’s communications outages
EL CENTRO — Despite a countywide telephone and internet outage on Friday, the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office was able to maintain emergency services thanks to contingency plans that were immediately implemented.
“For us, [the outage] didn’t affect our dispatch that much because we have backup systems,” Fred Miramontes, ICSO undersheriff, told Imperial Valley Press Saturday.
“We were able to work with our IT personnel from the sheriff’s office in downtown [El Centro] to reroute access, so we could have phone usage” at the dispatch center.
The outage was the result of damage to AT&T infrastructure caused by the West Fire near Alpine, an AT&T spokesperson confirmed Friday. An online outage chart reported service for T-Mobile, Sprint and Metro PCS in the county was affected as well.
AT&T media representatives did not respond to a request for additional information about the outage by press time Saturday.
The blaze began at about 11:15 a.m. Friday alongside eastbound Interstate 8 at West Willows Road. Its cause was unknown Saturday.
ICSO began experiencing communications problems sometime after 12 p.m., Miramontes said.
“At our office, all the phones were out because they were based on the internet,” he said.
As the situation developed, ICSO implemented backup procedures to ensure emergency 911 calls could be received by dispatch, Miramontes said, adding there was no disruption in service for area residents.
“We were able to call the state to get help [and] reroute the issue and start working on fixing whatever the problem was,” he said.
The only detrimental effect of the outage and rerouting of communications was a delay in queries to the California Department of Motor Vehicles about motorists, Miramontes said.
“Outside of that, there was nothing that was real critical that was lost in the concept,” he said. “We were able to be up and running.”
As a public safety agency, ICSO was well prepared to respond to the outage, Miramontes said.
“Most agencies that are in law enforcement or public safety need to be prepared for these items, so there are backup systems that are in place,” he said. “We are a public safety agency and one of the first ones [the public] are going to call when a disaster occurs or something like this happens.”
On Saturday, Imperial Valley Press requested information from other area law enforcement agencies such as the El Centro Police Department, Calexico Police Department and Brawley Police about how they fared during the outage, but did not receive a response from any before press time Saturday.
Miramontes said most phone services were restored in the Valley over the course of Friday evening. As of 3 p.m. Saturday, the 400-acre West Fire had been 30 percent contained and had destroyed 18 structures and damaged eight more, according to Cal Fire San Diego.
Units from Imperial County, El Centro, Brawley and Yuma fire departments on Friday and Saturday responded to assist in the West Fire in Alpine. As of Saturday, ICFD had sent two strike teams and ECFD sent one engine company with four personnel to assist in the fire.
No approximate time frame has been given on when the local fire units will return.
San Diego County Sheriff’s Department at noon Friday reported the need for immediate evacuations at Alpine Oaks Estates, and the area immediately behind Albertson’s on Alpine Boulevard — areas at risk of being enveloped by the fast-moving wildfire. Residents were asked to evacuate to the Viejas Casino. Several evacuation orders remained in effect Saturday.
While eastbound I-8 lanes were temporarily closed at West Willows Road due to the fire, Caltrans San Diego stated at 3 p.m. Friday the lanes were reopened. According to a San Diego County Emergency report at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown proclaimed a State of Emergency in San Diego due to the West Fire, which was one of four wildfires that reportedly broke out in San Diego County on Friday.