Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: WILLIAM FOSHER; RAY KELLY
NORTHAMPTON, MA – Crews working on the reconstruction of King Street yesterday afternoon severed a fiber-optic cable that provides long-distance service to Hamsphire County and sections of Franklin County.
The accident disrupted access to emergency dispatch services in western hilltowns of Hampshire County, which call an Amherst-based regional dispatching center to contact their emergency medical and fire departments.
Residents of Chesterfield, Cummington, Plainfield, Williamsburg and Worthington were advised to call the Goshen Fire Department, which could relay information by radio to the regional dispatch center, which could then contact the ambulance or fire department directly.
Several other towns that use the Hampshire County regional dispatch service were not affected, either because they have local telephone service to Amherst, or because their signals are carried by a different cable.
New England Telephone Co. spokesman David Wood said the break occurred at about 4 p.m. in front of the Bluebonnet Diner, where crews were excavating the roadbed as part of the King Street reconstruction project.
The cable break was the second public utility disruption blamed on the construction project. Last week crews accidently ruptured a high-pressure natural gas main, forcing the evacuation of five businesses on King Street.
Wood said NET management crews, substituting for striking union members, were working on the break last night, and hoped to have repairs completed by 10 p.m. Dispatch services were reporting that service was restored about 8:45 p.m.
In Franklin County, the new county radio dispatch system proved to be the lifeline for inter-departmental communications between fire and police departments last night.
A spokesman at the center said emergency officials were not aware of missing any calls for help as of 8 p.m., in any of their member towns although several would have to dial 1 to reach them.
He said the Ashfield Fire Department was patrolling roads and streets in that town with fire trucks, an ambulance and police car, and he believed Charlemont and Leverett might be doing the same.
Shutesbury and Pelham are also on the system and would have to dial 1 to call the center, but radios were being used in all the towns for emergency.
In Greenfield, dispatcher David Blake said the department relies heavily on telephone-type communications.
“We can’t run teletype info, can’t run listings (car registrations) can’t send inter-departmental communications, can’t call other towns, can’t call social service agencies in case of problems for someone, just a whole list of can’t,” Blake said.
Ralph Gordon and Nancy Gonter also contributed to this report.