A 209-acre brush fire remains 90% contained with crews monitoring possible hot spots for the next week. While there were few effects from the fire, Spinnaker License Corporation’s WEBY-AM Milton, FL transmission cables to their three antennas were melted by the intense heat and fire and they were knocked off the air around 3:48 p.m. 6/26.
Since then the station has returned to the air, but with less power.
Station owner and GM Mike Bates tells The Santa Rosa Press Gazette the station will be on reduced power from its transmitter for the next seven to 10 days.
Bates hopes to have some repairs made to the transmitter cables to increase the stations output, but it could be a significant time before the station returns to full power.
“I do not know how long it will take,” Bates said Tuesday night after he finally got to assess the damage. “It could be two to three months or longer. And at this time we do not even know how the cables are which are buried under the ground near the three towers. Upon entering the site the towers were standing, and the building looked okay from my initial vantage point. But once I got closer I saw that there was significant damage to other mission-critical structures. It was a fast moving fire that burned the entire site. But fortunately the flames did not ignite the building. It could have been much worse.”
The brush fire originated due to a mechanical issue just north of Interstate 10 around 1 p.m.
6/30 Update from WEBY:
See The Santa Rosa Press Gazette story here