BT Auchenmalg Exchange Fire in Scotland Knocks Out Some 999 Calls

The Dumfries & Galloway Police have confirmed that a fire, which midday yesterday burned down BT’s Auchenmalg exchange in Scotland, also knocked out telephones, broadband (ADSL but not FTTC) and prevented fixed line calls to emergency services for those in the surrounding area. It could take “several days” to fix.

According to the police, the situation occurred in-between Port William & Glenluce and impacted customers in the immediate area of the exchange (i.e. the area along the A747 between Auchenmalg and Port William). “We are aware of the risks involved and have held multi agency meetings, where we have had some reassurances that vulnerable people are being cared for,” said the police (people within the associated communities were asked to check in with family and friends to ensure they are well).

Crucially mobile signals in this area were unaffected and the police said that “BT are dedicated to the fixing the problem and are deploying an emergency vehicle to try and boost Wi-Fi capability in the area.” The villages of Port William, Glenluce and Sandhead are already said to be “operating as normal again,” but the same is not true everywhere.

Mercifully the scale of the impact is small with only around 137 customers hit.

A BT Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“A small number of people are without phone and broadband services following a fire on Monday at the Auchenmalg exchange [WSAUG] in Dumfries and Galloway. No one was injured by the fire and mobile networks are not affected. Engineers are assessing the damage and we are working with the emergency services and other partners to restore services as soon as possible.

A temporary mobile replacement exchange is on the way to Auchenmalg which will allow us to reconnect homes and businesses. BT has set up a major incident vehicle in Auchenmalg and we’re sending BT customers temporary mobile broadband dongles, where appropriate. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.”

Ofcom expects operators to take sufficient measures to maintain “uninterrupted” telephone access to emergency services and so they seem likely to probe this incident at some point in the future.