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Phone service restored photo by Bob Pennell By David Preszler An electrical wiring meltdown at US West�s downtown Medford switching center left the city�s telephone network teetering on the brink of failure Monday. Customers lost telephone, cellular and data services around the city, though US West officials said the entire system never went down. Service largely had been restored by evening, with the exception of some areas on the city�s fringes. Service was expected to be functioning normally by today. Cables connecting a power transformer to the phone company�s system melted early Monday morning, robbing the system of power. The cable meltdown also damaged wires connecting a backup generator to the system. That left only backup batteries to run the complex switching equipment that handles all 15 Medford prefixes as well as emergency calls for most of Jackson County. City police and fire officials used radio and television broadcasts to urge people to stay off the phones except for emergency calls. Any use, they warned, would drain the system faster. As the batteries faded, a citywide outage loomed. "We were down to the wire," said US West�s Dave Hoxie, who manages the company�s engineering operations throughout the 541 area code. But crews were able to reconnect the backup generator just after 4 p.m. before the batteries died. The batteries were to be recharged overnight, restoring service to the fringe areas. Pacific Power workers also began installing a temporary transformer to provide a more permanent power source; crews were expected to work through the night to finish it. That transformer will provide power over the next few weeks as the original system is repaired. With the battery power fading in the afternoon, utility workers shifted the load on the phone network in order to keep basic services such as 911 running. That created hit-and-miss service around the city. The disruptions ranged from simple phone service to advanced technologies such as cellular phones, Internet hook-ups, ATMs and credit card processing equipment. The outages disrupted businesses, inconvenienced residents and had public safety officials employing contingency plans. The cause of the problem was unknown Monday night, though Pacific Power officials said neither the transformer nor the primary line into it were damaged. City fire officials were still investigating what caused the wires to overheat, but they don�t suspect anything beyond some sort of electrical short. The fact that the incident damaged both US West�s primary power source and its immediate backup raises questions about the effectiveness of the company�s redundancy systems. Hoxie said it�s too soon to know exactly what happened but that the company will certainly be reviewing the incident. "There will be reports and this will be studied," he said. Fire crews were called just before 7:15 a.m. after black smoke began pouring out the basement of US West�s facility at the corner of Jackson Street and Central Avenue. "We didn�t find any live fire," said Medford Fire Department Battalion Chief Dan Peterson. "What we found was insulation and wire that was smoking. We found mostly wires that had overheated." Hazardous materials crews also were called because of the possibility that toxic chemicals often used in telecommunications were inside the building, though no such chemicals are used at the downtown facility. The mishap left public safety officials scrambling to ensure that emergency services remained available. City police and fire officials also set up locations around Medford for residents to report emergencies if they couldn�t get through by phone. Emergency calls to the county�s 911 center were rerouted to take strain off the Medford phone network. Outside of Ashland, which has its own emergency dispatch center, all of Jackson County�s emergency calls normally come through Medford. Those calls were rerouted to local fire departments. In addition to Jackson County, the system strain also affected 911 service in Josephine and Klamath counties. The so-called "advanced" 911 service for all three counties � which displays the caller�s number and address � is dependent on the Medford facility. Because of the strain, all 911 calls were restricted to "basic" service � only the voice connection. The outages and spotty service also disrupted commerce throughout the valley. Eric Freitas, receiving manager for Baxter All Value Office Products in downtown Medford, said the store was unable to place orders for its customers. Local calls met with a dial tone, while long-distance calls to suppliers in Portland and Los Angeles brought fast busy signals. "We got a few calls in and out, but that was rare," Freitas said. "We couldn�t do anything. Our business is basically run off phone lines." The area�s largest employer, Bear Creek Corp., rerouted its customer telephone traffic away from its Medford call center to a similar call center in Ohio, allowing it to continue serving customers. InternetCDS, the area�s largest locally run Internet service provider, lost its phone service first and then had its Internet connections disrupted, as did other ISPs. At the north Medford Fred Meyer, a store backup system allowed credit card transactions to be handled but phones and ATMs were out. Fred Sowers, the store�s manager, said the outage was particularly hard on the pharmacy, which couldn�t communicate with doctors� offices. Money wires and food stamp processing were also hampered. "It was like five years ago where you do everything manually," he said. 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