About 20,000 residents in Redmond and unincorporated King County are temporarily without 911 access from landline phones after a construction crew accidentally severed a fiber optic cable at the corner of Redmond Way and 159th Place Northeast in Redmond.

The temporary telephone outage limits residents’ ability to dial 911 from a land-line phone in the event of an emergency.

This outage only impacts some land-line telephones for residents in Redmond and unincorporated King County with telephone prefixes 425-881-xxxx or 425-883-xxxx. Residents should use their cell phones to dial 911 emergency calls, or to drive to their nearest fire station in the event of an emergency.

Fire departments in the affected areas will have additional staff and resources available at fire stations in the Redmond area to assist until the situation is resolved. Crews are currently working to repair the line and hope to have service restored in the next several hours.