Somebody shot up some fiber-optic cable in Gorham early Monday morning, local police say. The apparent act of vandalism left an unknown number of Mainers at least temporarily without telephone and Internet service, and authorities are investigating.
The fiber-optic cable in question is owned by a company called Maine Comm, a subsidiary of Central Maine Power. CMP spokesman John Carroll says an investigation is underway.
“Our security team is working with local police in Gorham as well as state police and federal officials, the FBI, in an investigation of this,” he says.
Carroll says there is no reason to believe the damage was anything more than random vandalism. And Gorham police aren’t sure exactly when the damage took place or its extent.
Police Chief Daniel Jones says telecom lines or a box located near Hutcherson Drive appear to have been hit by gunfire. But evidence that could help discover who took the shots or why, he says, is hard to find.
“We didn’t recover anything lodged in a power line, so once they get deflected, especially with all the snow and dirt and grass and everything else they’re very difficult to find around, and even then we would need something more to go on,” Jones says.
Some businesses and institutions that rent capacity on the fiber-optic network say they were able to reroute service and bypass the damaged cable in Gorham. But some — including MPBN’s Portland studios and offices — have been contending with limited Internet and phone service through the day.
According to an email from MPBN Chief Technology Officer Gil Maxwell, a cable fix was not expected to be in place until at least the weekend.