California-based GeoLinks is working to replace towers burned in the wildfires. That’s key, as the latest news indicates the return of powerful winds is making the Thomas fire dangerous again.
GeoLinks is based in Camarillo, which is in Ventura County. The company has hundreds of telecom towers in Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles Counties. GeoLinks personnel battle flames as they work to rebuild burned down sites and restore service, according to Marketing Director Lexie Olson. “Driving through Ventura was pretty surreal, lots of smoke and multiple fires visible from the street,” she wrote in a blog post, sharing the personal account of a GeoLink infrastructure technician.
“Driving up to the actual tower was disheartening at first, just because of how much was burned; one of the posts holding up the gate was completely destroyed, leaving the gate lying on the ground. It was there we first noticed a fence post smoking…but we continued on,” according to the account.
The crew got the destroyed site back up in a couple of hours but as they began their trek down the mountain, they noticed the fence post they saw smoking on their way up the mountain grew “to multiple en-flamed posts, threatening the surrounding area. We immediately turned around, went back to the tower site where we had stored a fire extinguisher, and returned to put out the fires. It was a real-life example of how quickly these fires can spread,” according to the infrastructure technician.
The GeoLinks team, some of whom lost their homes, repaired 12 destroyed sites throughout Ventura and Ojai as of December 14, accounting for more than 500 square miles of coverage area. They continue this work today.
Citizens Broadband Radio Service in the 3550-3700 MHz Band