The site of a SaskTel building in Spiritwood which caught fire the morning of Aug. 23. (submitted photo/ SaskTel)

By Nicole Reis

SaskTel Services Restored

SaskTel services fully restored in Spritwood area after fire knocked out phone lines

Sep 2, 2020 | 3:01 PM

All telephone services in the Spiritwood area have been fully restored Tuesday after a SaskTel building in the town caught fire in the early morning of August 23.

As a result of the fire, all local SaskTel services including phone and emergency services, internet, and cellular services were lost. Cell service was out for approximately two days and land line service were down for approximately one week.

Sgt. Shannon Haggerty with Spiritwood RCMP said the service outage affected the community’s ability to call 911 or get in touch with emergency services for a brief period.

“We made adjustments with our schedule and had 24-hour policing available and patrols until services were restored,” Haggerty told meadowalakeNOW. “We had good communication with our surrounding communities, with our chief and councils and with village and town and councils. Together we were able to keep the communication open and dealt with the situation together.”

The affected area was estimated to be from Spiritwood north to Chitek Lake, south to Rabbit Lake, and east to Debden.

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Local resident and Spiritwood Good Health Pharmacy staff member said the outage was a gentle reminder of the daily reliance on technology. She said a majority of patients fill their prescriptions by phone and with services down, patients were coming in.

“The phone calls were not coming in so we we had patients come in so it was a little busier than usual with patient flow,” she said.

Things were relatively normal though the pharmacy was not able to bill insurance or drug plan providers.

The internet was restored on Tuesday morning and landlines were restored by 2:30 p.m.

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nicole.reis@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @nicolereis7722