India, Jan. 26 -- Oregon's Holiday Farm Fire left very little behind as it tore through the McKenzie River Valley east of Eugene in the fall of 2020. Cell service was eliminated as 27 miles of fiber were destroyed along with homes and businesses, leaving roughly 800 people without a way to communicate with the outside world. But the communities scattered across the valley quickly came together to create their own makeshift network using point-to-multipoint wireless. For some of them, the new DIY Internet service is delivering faster speeds than they had before.

The volunteer group that built the network calls itself Oregon Internet Response. It's led by Geoff Turner, a central Oregon native who got his start doing IT work for a church an...