Fire service cut as Telstra lines go down

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-2000
Fire service cut as Telstra lines go down

The New South Wales government has revealed that contact with the fire brigade in the
small country town of Dunedoo was cut for 24 hours after Telstra phone lines went down.

Emergency Services Minister BOB DEBUS has told state parliament that emergency phone
lines to the Dunedoo fire brigade went down on March 29.

Mr DEBUS said the latest line failure followed an incident last month, when Mudgee
Hospital was plagued by failing lines for several days.

He says the lines failure meant the population of Dunedoo, 829 people, was left without
effective fire brigade coverage.

Mr DEBUS says the NSW fire brigade diverted a fire unit from Dubbo to Dunedoo to find
out why the station was not responding to attempts to call it.

Mr DEBUS says later, a satellite phone was despatched from Dubbo to Dunedoo, by truck,
a distance of 100 kilometres.

AAP RTV pwa/sb/wz

KEYWORD: TELSTRA (SYDNEY)

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