The title is actively wrong. The tweet linked, and the news article it links to, both finger PG&E's voluntary power shutoff as the reason the cell towers are down. They are not down because of fire, they're down because PG&E decided they shouldn't be up.<p>> Of the 874 outages, 702 were blamed on loss of power to the cell tower site.<p>> A few, about 60, were down due to wind or fire damage to the sites themselves.
Firefighters (or others) could set up a "no-frills" base station on their truck.<p>These systems include a power generator, servers, and a 2G GSM base station for ranges of about 10km.<p>They don't even require any Internet connection, since their only purpose is to allow emergency calls and SMS. Any cell phone can set up an emergency call then - no need for a special SIM card.<p>Vodafone has a humanitarian mission that sets up these systems all over the world. (They're using Huawei, though)<p><a href="https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/resources/mobile-network-restoration-humanitarian-response/" rel="nofollow">https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/resources/mobile-n...</a>
And just months ago California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection decided:
"However, with constantly changing technological advances, there is no longer the same benefit to State as previously provided. Therefore, the Department no longer financially supports HAM operators [sic] radios or tenancy. If you desire to enter into a formal agreement to operate and maintain said equipment, you must complete and submit attached collocation application along with fee as outlined on page one of application. There is cost associated with getting an agreement in place.”<p>So basically pay up or move out.<p>How exactly is the word supposed to get out in dangerous dry windy conditions if the power is out, the cells are out, and the hams move out?
Here's the report direct from the FCC.<p><a href="https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-360482A1.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-360482A1.pdf</a>