MAHANOY CITY — A large pile of tires collected over the weekend as part of the annual Schuylkill Keep It Pretty cleanup campaign were lit on fire Monday night, causing damage to overhanging telephone wires.
Mahanoy City firefighters were called about 10:30 p.m. to the area off of the Pottsy Hill in Mahanoy Township and found the tires ablaze.
Crews quickly extinguished the fire but not before the intense heat caused by the blaze damaged Verizon telephone wires, leaving some customers in the villages of New Boston and Morea without landline telephone service.
PennDOT crews were at the site Tuesday morning with dump trucks and a small skid loader to remove what remained of the tires, many of which were melted, while crews from Verizon repaired the burned wires to restore service.
State police at Frackville said they did not investigate the incident and Mahanoy Township police were not on duty at the time of the fire.