Business & Tech

Fire Causes Thousands of Verizon Customers To Lose Phone, Internet Service

Tewksbury Police Department, Wilmington Registry of Motor Vehicles among those impacted by Lawrence fire.

Thousands of Verizon customers across the Merrimack Valley lost phone and internet service Monday, when a fire in Lawrence destroyed a critical cable.

Both land lines and cell phone customers were impacted. As of 4:30 p.m., Verizon crews were still working to repair the damage. Service was being restored gradually across the region. There is no timetable for complete service restoration, according to company officials.

According to Tewksbury Policeand published reports, the problems began when a mattress under a bridge in Lawrence caught fire early Monday morning. Before being extinguished, the fire burned through a nearby Verizon cable.

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Communities impacted by the outages include Tewksbury, Andover, North Andover, Wilmington, Methuen, Lawrence, Littleton and North Reading.

Among those impacted was the Wilmington Registry of Motor Vehicles, .

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The Registry of Motor Vehicles in Lawrence also experienced a loss of phone service and closed for the day as a result.


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