Residents impacted by AT&T outage frantic as outside fire burns out of control

BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — A fire was burning out of control Thursday at a Burke County field and some residents who were trying to call for their neighbors couldn’t get through because of a nationwide AT&T outage.

AT&T says the hourslong outage to its U.S. cellphone network appeared to be the result of a technical error, not a malicious attack.

Homeowner Mike Helton said he tried to call his neighbors in the Chesterfield community to warn them about the fire.

“It would blow this way and then change and go north and then south,” Helton said.

Helton said the small fire he started to get his garden ready for the spring was out of control, which burned a barn and three acres of his land.

Across the street, Crystal Setzer spotted the flames and tried to reach her neighbors but didn’t have any cellphone service.

“Nothing,” Setzer said. “I even cut it on and off … when I seen the flames and I thought it was going to jump the road and I said, OK. 911.”

Setzer said she has Consumer Cellular, which uses AT&T for coverage.

The SOS feature on her phone allowed her to call 911.

Three fire departments responded to keep the fire from reaching a nearby home.

Helton said the winds made it tough.

“(It was) fast enough, I had to get out of the way,” Helton said. “I tried to beat it down with this old towel as I went.”

Setzer said for much of the day, her phone indicated “no cellular service.”

She said that it is easy to forget the significance of mobile devices.

“Because we don’t have a landline anymore,” Setzer said. “We just have the cellphones (to rely on).”

Officials with Burke County, like most counties, said the outage did not impact their emergency communication services.

They said if you can’t call 911, try to text.

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