Mediacom services restored after fire at Burlington facility

All telephone, internet and cable services provided by Mediacom should be restored to customers now, according to Phyllis Peters, communications director for the company.

Peters explained that crews worked through the night to repair services, ?Approximately 85 percent of services were fixed between 3:30 and 6:30 a.m. this morning with the rest fixed between 7 and 9 a.m. today.?

Repairs were necessary after a Mediacom facility in Burlington was struck by lightning early Wednesday morning. The facility serves Des Moines, Henry, Lee and Louisa counties.

According to a press release from the company, customers were experiencing service interruption yesterday ?as a result of a fire that occurred (Thursday) morning which caused substantial damage to a hub facility in Burlington.?

A release from Peters today said, ?The fire was caused by a massive lightening strike to a tower adjacent to a West Burlington facility used by Mediacom to house equipment that controls telecommunication services delivered to customers in a four-county area of southeast Iowa.?

The facility that was damaged houses electronics and communications equipment that provides cable television, high-speed internet and phone services to customers in the four-county area.

No employees were injured in the incident, according to the release.

?Our priority was getting services restored,? said Peters. She explained that there is structural damage to the facility but all services should be up and running.

In order to get services up and running this morning, new electronic equipment had to be installed and configured.

Mediacom Regional Vice President Doug Frank reports that he has scheduled extra technicians to be available throughout Friday and the weekend to respond to individual customer issues that may occur in some instances where modems don?t automatically reactivate.