Services expected to be back by ‘later today’ for all Hamiltonians, Rogers says

Rogers Communications said services are expected to be restored for all Hamiltonians later today" as its crew members continue to repair the damages at Upper Wellington St on Saturday.

The agency tweeted late afternoon that services are back online for many of our customers" - hours after the outage was first reported due to a local fire.

Six on-site crews are working hard to repair all damaged fibre lines as quickly as possible," RogersHelps said on Twitter.

Many in Hamilton on Saturday woke up to an internet outage or total blackout as Rogers Communications reported a widespread disruption early morning hours.

Rogers Communications said the most recent outages and issues have been reported in Hamilton, Ancaster, Dundas, Stoney Creek, Waterdown and Burlington.

The agency said some services are out due to a fibre cut" in Hamilton area.

A local fire last night was identified as a reason for the fibre cut and local wire services outage.

There was some rubbish against a hydro pole that caught fire" at Upper Wellington St on Friday at 10:45 p.m., said Ryan Coburn, assistant deputy chief with Hamilton Fire Department.

He told The Spectator that the fire extended up the pole to the hydro and communication wires which compromised their integrity."

Alectra had to de-energize the wires before crews could fully extinguish safely," Coburn said.

RogersHelps said in a tweet earlier that after last night's fire was extinguished, our crew were given access to the site this morning to begin restoration work."

Hamilton Police said the current Rogers outage will affect the ability to call 911.

Many Rogers users in the city are taking to social media, complaining about the internet outage.

Ritika Dubey is a reporter at The Spectator. rdubey@thespec.com