Volunteers bring internet to Holiday Farm Fire area

Watch coverage tonight -- it'll likely be several months before stable internet and phone service returns to areas destroyed by the holiday farm fire.

But residents and businesses don't have the time to wait -- so the*community is stepping in -- to close the communication gap.

Kezi 9 news reporter jacob roberts shows us how volunteers have come together to make it happen.

You can't see it from the highway, but nestled up in the hills above blue river lies a critical new piece of the puzzle for restoring what the holiday farm fire took from residents who live here.

A piece of the puzzle, because there's many of these new communications towers in the area.

Matt sayre says, "it actually starts in bend and is repeated on a tower on hoodoo the ski resort?and then to a place called carmen smith and then to belknap bluff and then to a mountain behind us which is called castle rock" providing critical access to the outside world& these new towers are the handiwork of oregon internet response.

Think of them like first responders, but for the internet.

The group, with the help of many other volunteers, has restored internet for a ranger station as well as the local elctric utility in the area.

They've used the towers to set up wifi hotspots for the public to connect to.

Matt sayre says, "right now, we're focusing on parking lot areas where people can pull up in their car or traditional community gathering places like churches, parking lots and so forth and also the school" jacob roberts says, "to get connected, just look for one of these orange boxes.

From there you can go right on to your phone and search for the 'emergency wifi access', or you can scan the qr code" lane county commissoiner heather buch says getting the community back online is a priority, not just to connect with loved ones or 9-1-1, but for students doing distance learning.

Heather buch says, "it's very important that if we move forward with building the blue river community, internet must be here.

That is part of the solution for both short term and long-term recovery" reporting in blue river, jr, kezi 9 news.

Oregon internet response says the network*won't be there for*good -- but they'll keep it running until century link and spectrum*rebuild their