By Kyla Cathey, Lodi News-Sentinel, Calif.
Just weeks after the Butte Fire ripped through more than 70,000 acres in Amador and Calaveras counties east of Lodi, the blaze is nearly contained.
But it left its mark, in 475 homes and nearly 400 other structures burned. Many of those were in the town of Mountain Ranch, which was devastated by the wildfire.
Along with homes, the fire that swept through Mountain Ranch destroyed copper phone lines and fiber-optic cables, obliterating the small town’s power and its ability to communicate.
That’s where two local communications companies stepped in.
Lodi’s CCT Telecomm and Mountain Ranch’s REM Net Communications have teamed up to bring free Wi-Fi access and telephone service to the town.
“Getting phone and Internet to displaced residents is the least we can do,” CCT Telecomm’s Bill Koch said in a press release. ”Establishing a connection, whether to family, friends or work, can bring some relief and normalcy.”
Across from Sender’s Market, the companies installed a small bank of phones that use Voice over IP technology to make calls over the Internet using the Wi-Fi signals, Koch said Wednesday.
The phones are free to use and available to the public, he said. They were installed Sept. 17, and will remain in place until AT&T and PG&E are able to repair or replace damaged lines and restore communications to the town.
There was a measure of satisfaction that comes with helping to connect those stranded by the fire to their loved ones, Koch said Wednesday.
“It was enjoyable for us to put it in and make it work,” he said.
But it wasn’t just the pleasure of helping a hard-hit local community that drove the companies to help Mountain Ranch.
REM Net Communications owner Ron Mobley, a friend of Koch’s, is a Mountain Ranch resident who lost his home to the fire.
“I went out to check a tower site Friday morning. I came back and my home was gone,” he said in the press release.
He wasn’t alone.
When Koch went up to Mountain Ranch to see what he could do to help his friend, he found that the town center was spared by the flames. Thanks to the work of the town’s residents, Koch said, Sender’s Market and other businesses were saved.
But once he got out of the town’s center, he found a scene of devastation, he said. Dozens of homes were burned, he said.
It hit home for Koch, not just because his friend Mobley had lost a home, but because another friend had lost his huge telephone museum. Sender’s Market, a longtime CCT customer, was struggling without communications.
“So we decided we needed to help the community,” Koch said.
CCT Telecomm provided equipment, including batteries and generators, for REM Net to establish wireless Internet.
Once that apparatus was in place, CCT installed the phone hub across from Sender’s Market, as well as connecting the market itself to phone and Internet services.
Koch plans to return to Mountain Ranch today to install more of the VoIP phones. While the businesses survived the fire, they don’t have phone lines right now, meaning customers can’t use credit or debit cards and the stores can’t put in orders for supplies.
The companies hope this will help Mountain Ranch residents get back to normal life as quickly as possible.
“Seeing the loss my community is suffering, it feels good to be able to provide something useful,” Mobley said.
©2015 the Lodi News-Sentinel (Lodi, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
