There was a small spark, but one big enough to set the surrounding wire aflame. The wires and wood around it started burning, moving slowly up from beneath the ground.

This fire grew and grew until it finally hit Viva Books, the bookstore above. The fire department came and put it out swiftly. But the trouble wasn’t over. The blaze, which disrupted a critical fiber optic network, caused widespread internet outages for tens of thousands of Baltimore residents. Many went without internet for days.

For some, this wasn’t just an inconvenience. It was a major disruption to their daily lives. And this included many Friends School community members.

“I didn’t have wifi for like two weeks in my own house,” said senior and Bolton Hill resident Ulysses Brockman. “I couldn’t even play Fortnite.”

Besides the impact on his ability to unload when he got home from school, Ulysses said, he couldn’t do his school work at home. He had to come in early to school many days, to use the school wifi.

“I couldn’t do homework at home,” he said. “I had to come to school early to finish it all.”

Ulysses wasn’t the Friends student impacted by the outage. Baltimore City resident and Friends School junior Indigo Mosley felt its effects too.

“It took over a week,” said Indigo. “I just couldn’t call or text anyone for like a week.”

Indigo said she didn’t realize the source of the problem right away.

“I didn’t even know there was a fire, for a while,” she said.

This was all due to the September underground fire – one of 10 underground fires in the city this year, whose origins remain mysterious. This one also caused road closures in the affected area of downtown. Thankfully, no one was injured. There were a few hundred thousand dollars in damages, since it only burnt one building.

Overall, the fire revealed how reliant the city is on technology. Even though internet went away for just two weeks for just a few thousand residents, it still had a major impact.