911 system briefly down in 8 SC counties

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina emergency officials say the 911 system is running again in eight counties that lost their emergency phone lines.

State Emergency Management Division spokesman Derrec Becker says a problem with phone lines operated by Frontier Communications shut down the 911 system in Clarendon, Fairfield, Georgetown, Horry, Laurens, Lee, McCormick and Williamsburg counties Friday morning.

Officials say service was restored before 9 a.m.

Frontier Communications says workers were doing maintenance on their phone systems when a switch was accidentally turned off, shutting the network down.

The company says workers quickly realized the problem and got the network up and running again.