TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Remembering the Great Telco Fire, May, 1988

Re: Remembering the Great Telco Fire, May, 1988

Paul (paule@nospam-mindspring.com)
Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:26:51 -0400

Fortunately the company I worked for in the Chicago suburbs (708 area
code) had one line with a 312 area code. I think the owner kept one
line with a 312 number so that our downtown Chicago customers could
call our suburban offices without paying a metered rate. That single
312 phone number was a lifesaver for the company during the outage.
There was a special term for that line with the out-of-area code.
Does anyone know?

-- Paul

"George S Thurman" <gsthurman@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:telecom26.170.10@telecom-digest.org...

> Very interesting reading this. I was living in Chicago at the time,
> so I remember it very well. One question is how long did it ACTUALLY
> take to replace the switch and restore full service to the area.

> George "Skip" Thurman

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Illinois Bell stated that the
> restoration was about 90 percent finished within a month, in mid-June,
> 1988. It was about 95 percent finished within a month or two after
> that. A couple telco repair technicians in the area noted to me that
> the restoration was never _totally_ i.e. 100 percent (as in things
> operated _exactly_ as they had before the fire). It got to be 'the
> equivilent of' 100 percent during August of that year, but trained and
> experienced ears which listened _closely_ said the 'action' (if you want
> to call it that) was never completely replicated.

> I do not know if you recall this or not, Skip, but _you_ were the
> person who tipped me off to the fire in progress that Sunday afternoon
> in a phone call to my home. PAT]

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