[May 31, 2012] Cable cut by lightning strike; Mediacom service down after fire at system site. Tweet May 31, 2012 (The Hawk Eye - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- WEST BURLINGTON -- Fire officials have told Mediacom that a massive lightning strike to its North Gear Avenue facility's adjacent tower was the cause of the fire that knocked out service to most of the area Thursday morning. Mediacom spokeswoman Phyllis Peters said cable television signals was restored as of 10:30 a.m., but crews were still working to restore high-speed Internet and phone service to customers in the affected areas in Burlington, Middletown, West Burlington and Danville, including parts of Lee, Henry and Louisa counties. That means customers can watch cable channels but cannot access video on demand or pay-per-view. No employees or firefighters were injured. The incident was reported at 7:01 a.m. Advertisement Peters said the lightning strike sparked the building on fire. "The entire roof was destroyed," Peters said. "There's a lot of damage, a lot of electrical pieces." New equipment needed to fix and reconfigure the system is en route, either from Mediacom's Des Moines or Cedar Rapids facilities. Peters said some parts also may come from the company's Norther Indiana location. "Rather than waiting, we have in motion a whole new architecture in place and we will put it in a closed trailer," Peters said. "It basically will be a mobile facility." Peters called the cause of the outage "quite rare." "There's been weather-related, lightning-related damage to towers or other parts of an infrastructure," Peters said. "But not this type of situation where there's a fire." "It's certainly not something we could have prevented," she said. As far as Internet and phone services, Peters said "we are working to get that resolved as quickly as possible." Peters said an assessment of the damage is being conducted and an update on the status of services will be forthcoming this afternoon or early evening. West Burlington Fire Chief Mike Heim said his crew got help from a tanker from Danville and Yarmouth. "The fire was contained in the attic area," Heim said, adding he was told there's $10 million to $17 million worth of equipment housed in the facility. The last fire truck left the scene at 11 a.m. "We saved about 95 percent of the equipment," Heim said. See the Hawk Eye Friday edition for more on the story. ___ (c)2012 The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) Visit The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) at www.thehawkeye.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]