Everybody loves to hate their resident cable/telephone company, but the network operators are stepping it up in San Diego to help people where they can in the fire crisis. According to CableFAX (subscription only), Cox Communications has started providing water, blankets and free phone services at evacuation centers. Verizon is offering free call forwarding for customers affected by the fires and has provided emergency phone lines for evacuees at American Red Cross Shelters.
Meanwhile, all of the local operators are busy evaluating the impact of the fire on their networks. In what sounds like the worst of the network damage, nearly four thousand feet of Charter’s fiber optic cable has burned in the San Bernardino Mountain area.
Note: GigaOM has an interesting post up about the L.A. Fire Department using Twitter to keep people updated on the fire situation.