Exchange fire knocks out 8,000 phone lines
Diss BT Fire - Feb 26 2013
A fire at the BT Telephone Exchange in Diss on Tuesday morning knocked out about 8,000 telephone lines affecting telephone and broadband services for businesses and householders across the town and surrounding area.
Fire appliances from Diss, Harleston and East Harling were called to the Chapel Street building at 9.20am with the first loss of service occuring at about 10.45am.
Firefighter Jonathan Wilby, station manager at Great Yarmouth who was working from Diss and attended, said the fire, which was located in an electrical transformer, was quickly brought under control.
Crews wearing breathing apparatus used main and hose reel jets supplemented by a hydrant to extinguish the fire. A thermal image camera was used to check for hot spots.
Telephone and internet services were out for most of the morning while BT staff carried out repairs.
The dialling codes affected were 01379, 01953 and 01986 covering Diss, Botesdale and Mellis, as well as other villages.
BT facilities manager Paul Brook, who was at the Chapel Street building, said staff had worked to get businesses back to normal as quickly as possible, and phone services were restored to Mellis and Botesdale at around 12.25pm and Diss was restored at around 12.50pm.
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Weather for Diss
Monday 20 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North
