Months after the fire, many Altadena residents still don't have internet

Residents who’ve returned home after the L.A. firestorm are facing another issue: getting back online.

The primary high-speed internet service providers in the area, Spectrum and AT&T, say service hasn’t been fully restored.

LAist spoke to residents in Altadena about the barriers they’ve faced, and what service providers are doing to reconnect homes.

A street’s ‘little black hole’

The night the Eaton Fire broke out, longtime Altadena resident Joan Collazo remembered reading in an online group that if flames ignited during the high winds, people should plan on leaving.

“ I did not think a fire was gonna start, but a neighbor called us after dinner… and said ‘you have to evacuate,’” she said. “I looked out and we could see the flames from the end of the street.”

That night, Collazo’s family left the house in less than half an hour. Luckily their house didn’t burn down, but it did need weeks of remediation. When the utilities were restored, they were going to move back in until they realized the ongoing lack of internet posed a big problem.

Joan Collazo and her family rely on internet service for both work and daily tasks like finding recipes. When internet was down due to the fires, the family had to find creative ways to access reliable service.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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While they could have used the mobile hot spot function on their cell phones, it typically can’t handle heavier internet traffic, like the video conferencing that Collazo’s daughter needed for work.

So they decided to camp out at a hotel, which did have internet. However, it was slow and speeds would “crawl to a halt” at times, which made things like uploading insurance documents incredibly time-consuming. They also drove to Caltech to work out of a conference room, but none of it was ideal.

Collazo’s family finally returned home in February after her internet service provider, AT&T, gave them a 5G mobile hotspot, but that posed another problem. The Altadena area can have shoddy cell service, she said.

They would take turns using the internet to prevent bandwidth issues, reserving most of the hotspot for their daughter. But the three months of free service the hotspot came with has since run out.

Altadena homeowner, Joan Collazo, holds the hotspot device that AT&T sent her when her internet was down due to the Eaton Fire in January.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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Collazo’s regular AT&T internet service still hasn’t been restored. Other people in her neighborhood can connect, but not them yet.

“ It was like we were this little black hole of like two-and-a-half blocks with nothing,” she said. “ We didn't expect the electricity and the gas and the water the next day. We gave them time. But three months, four months? That's pushing it.”

She ended up switching temporarily to Spectrum because their service is back on in her neighborhood.

“ It’s dependable,” she said. “It’s just not as fast as what we were used to.”

Phones were a lifeline

Becky Janes, who lives on the same block as Collazo, also faced challenges. Except for about a day, she’s been home during the entire course of the fires and recovery. Janes came back because she didn’t know what to do with her pets — 16 canaries and 20-year-old fish.

Becky Janes, who has lived in her childhood Altadena home for decades, decided to stay during the fires in order to tend to her birds and fish. She was without internet service until she received a hotspot from AT&T.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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When Janes returned, the homes directly adjacent to hers were on fire. She and her neighbors formed a bucket brigade with pool and pond water to tamper the flames. After that feat, her next hurdle was to hold out with zero utilities, including her AT&T internet.

“ I have a cell phone, but it’s an old one, so it doesn’t keep the charge that much,” Janes said. “I have my Prius that only had a little bit of gas in it, but I figured, well I can juice up my cell phone from my car.”

She also got an old gas generator from a family member, allowing her to get online in limited ways. She kept her use to a minimum, but the cell service was how she learned to properly clean her home.

While Becky Janes was disconnected, she used her phone's internet to purchase a pump for her pond that burned during the fires.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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“I looked up on the internet and it [said], if you have soot in the house, don’t vacuum it.  Scoop it up with, um, paper towels,” Janes said. “And that’s what I did.”

She also used her phone to order things online. Janes needed an air purifier and a new pump for her pond.

AT&T also gave her the free hotspot, which allowed her to watch shows on BritBox, a streaming service for British media. But it took months for her reliable internet to return. At the time of our interview last week, her connection had just came back on.

“ I don’t know that much about internet,” Janes said. “I just know that it was my lifeline. That’s all I had was this [phone], and it was limited.”

Getting service turned back on

While there are other internet providers that serve the burn zones, Spectrum and AT&T are typically the most popular because of their broadband speeds.

In a statement to LAist, an AT&T spokesperson said they’re making progress on restoration efforts.

“In Altadena, more than 60% of our internet customers have had their service restored,” the company said. “Restoration efforts in this area have been extensive and require close coordination with other utility providers before we’re able to place our cables.”

AT&T workers in Altadena working to restore internet service.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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It’s worth noting AT&T doesn’t service the Palisades area that burned, but Spectrum does. They seem to be further ahead on repairs overall.

“We have already restored service either permanently or temporarily to more than 75% of the affected homes in the fire areas,” said Spectrum in a statement. “Those remaining require new utility infrastructure rebuild and we are coordinating with them and others on it.”

According to Spectrum, the roughly 25% remaining includes properties where customers may not be able to move back in. They’ve replaced more than a hundred miles of network lines so far.

Meanwhile, crews are going in and doing the painstaking work of replacing damaged and destroyed equipment, both above and below ground. Sometimes, that can include splicing internet cables together with hundreds of fibers.

Residents typically have to reach out to schedule an appointment to turn on service since the companies don’t know who’s back and who isn’t. For Spectrum, current customers can call (833) 499-3306. At AT&T, the number listed is (800) 288-2020.