Thomas Fire Updates

The Thomas Fire is a massive wildfire burning in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. The fire began north of Santa Paula, near Steckel Park and Thomas Aquinas College, on December 4, 2017. It has burned approximately 252,500 acres thus far, making it already the fourth-largest wildfire in modern California history, destroying at least 930 structures, damaging more than 200 others; and forcing upwards of 100,000 residents to evacuate.

Ray Ford / Noozhawk photo

 

(Ryan Cullom / Ventura County Fire Department photo)

GeoLinks has hundreds of telecom towers located throughout the Ventura, Santa Barbara and LA counties that provide service to thousands of both urban and rural families. Within just hours of the fires’ inception, the GeoLinks’ team sprang into action, literally battling flames as they worked relentlessly to rebuild burnt down sites and restore service.

“Driving through Ventura was pretty surreal, lots of smoke and multiple fires visible from the street. 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 where we first noticed a fence post smoking…but we continued on.

The view on the drive up was hindered by smoke, we couldn’t see the ocean, or even the Crown Plaza. That’s when everything really hit me… to know we were celebrating and having fun on Saturday at GeoLinks’ holiday party just a couple miles away, and now we were dealing with the horrible fallout of this natural disaster. It was a wild juxtaposition of mindsets to comprehend just over the span of a few days…

From the top of the mountain, the view was incredible, in a very somber way. Smoke spread in every direction, winds whipping sand and ash all around us. Although, we knew what we were doing was important, so we got to work and had the completely destroyed site back up and running in just a couple hours. We then started our trek back down the mountain when we noticed that same smoking fence had grown to multiple enflamed 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…” — Personal Account Shared from GeoLinks’ Infrastructure Technician.

To date, the GeoLinks team has already repaired 12 destroyed sites throughout Ventura and Ojai accounting for more than 500 square miles of coverage area. However, the Thomas Fire continues to wreak havoc at only 35% containment requiring the GeoLinks’ team to continue to work around the clock to maintain service.

Outside of the field, many GeoLinks employees have been personally affected by the fire as well, some even losing their homes. Ultimately, this ongoing natural disaster has affected both the company and surrounding communities in every way possible.

Check back soon for further updates, but in the meantime please visit the below link if you wish to support and give back to those directly affected by the Thomas Fire. Created by GeoLinks’ employees Lexie Olson and Lindsey Ditchfield, 100% of proceeds of these “Ventura County Strong” shirts will be donated to Ventura County residents directly affected by the Thomas Fire.

VenturaCountyStrongShirt.com

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