Thousands of Verizon customers across the Merrimack Valley lost phone and internet service Monday, when a fire in Lawrence destroyed a critical cable.

Communities impacted by the outages include Tewksbury, Andover, North Andover, Wilmington, Methuen, Lawrence, Littleton and North Reading. North Andover 911 calls are going to Andover and they are running dispatch for North Andover until service is restored.

The outages were caused by a fire that impacted phone lines under a bridge in Lawrence early this morning. The cause of that fire is under investigation.

As of 4:30 p.m., many customers in the area saw their service returned. Service is being restored gradually across the region, and Verizon officials say there is no timetable for complete service restoration.

The Registry of Motor Vehicles in Lawrence and Wilmington also experienced a loss of phone service and both closed for the day as a result.