SALEM, N.H. --
The Salem Fire Department lost its 911 service for more than 12 hours over the weekend, and officials are demanding to know why it took so long to fix the problem.
Service was knocked out at 9 p.m. Friday when rain damaged an underground cable. Fire officials said they called their phone company as soon as they realized there was a problem, but work didn't begin until the following morning.
The phone company, One Communications, contacted Verizon, which owns the lines. Verizon spokeswoman Jill Wurm said that the company made the repair work the top priority, which meant it was the first job for Saturday morning.
"We have to look at the road conditions -- and that's a busy road," Wurm said. "We have to make sure our crews are safe to work. And I don't think on Friday night we recognized who was out, just that we had customers out of service."
The Fire Department used a backup plan that night and into the weekend. Calls to 911 normally go to both the police and fire departments, so the Police Department forwarded the calls to a cell phone.
A computer screen in Salem's alarm room also displays the address of the call, and it was the one line that didn't go down.
"We didn't necessarily know what the problem was, but we knew we were requested there, so we got companies on the way," Assistant Chief Paul Parisi said.
Officials said the backup plan helped prevent delays in their response, but they said they're still concerned about the time it took to get the problem fixed.
"When a public safety agency loses communication, it absolutely has to be the No. 1 priority," Parisi said. "It doesn't matter if it's 3 in the afternoon or 3 in the morning. Somebody has got to get out there and physically look at the system and figure out the problem because people's lives are at stake."
One line was still down by Wednesday afternoon. Verizon said bad weather slowed down repairs. The company said it is replacing parts so that the fix will be permanent.
Salem police and fire officials said they want to sit down with One Communications and Verizon to hammer out a plan to prevent future problems.
