By Daily Press staff
Phone lines were down throughout the city Monday night after an apparent water leak wiped out Verizon’s system at its Santa Monica location.
From about 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. virtually no one in Santa Monica was able to receive or place calls, including the police and fire departments. Both departments went into emergency response mode.
Santa Monica Police Lt. Frank Fabrega said the department first experienced trouble at about 6 p.m. when the internal phone system wouldn’t allow outgoing calls. Then, incoming calls failed. Within a short time, all 9-11 calls stopped coming into the police department.
Fabrega said the police department went into its tactical operations mode by taking every employee on duty and placing them strategically throughout the city. Since the police department could still communicate via radio with other emergency response units like ambulances, paramedics, the fire department and other law enforcement agencies, it was important to have people on the streets looking for potential emergencies, Fabrega said.
“Officers were given certain areas to patrol in the city and any employee was reassigned so anyone that is here is put out in the field,” he said. “Our radios were up so we could communicate and people just drove slower so they could look for people that were trying to get their attention.”
People were unable to call 9-11 from land lines. But cell phones were working and any 9-11 call was directly placed to the California Highway Patrol.
Fabrega said the SMPD gave CHP, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department cell phone numbers where officers could be reached to respond to local emergencies.
“We always plan and prepare for emergencies just like this one and it definitely provided a high level of service,” Fabrega said. “People can be assured they have coverage. Everything that we planned for went perfect.”
An hour after the phone lines were restored, SMPD received a call of an auto theft in progress on the 100 block of Pacific Avenue. When police arrived, the suspects were still at the scene, Fabrega said. The suspects, who were both homeless, were arrested and taken into custody, Fabrega said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 25, 2002. Read the original PDF.