Loma Fire threatening high tech equipment

The Loma Fire is causing more than a few challenges for at least one business in downtown Santa Cruz.

Cruzio Internet has a wireless receptor up at the Loma Prieta summit. It acts as a connecting point to customers in Scotts Valley and Watsonville.

“Mainly monitoring to make sure that our equipment was safe and we were able to maintain service for our customers,” said Chris Frost, Director of Infrastructure and Technology with Cruzio.

Crews with Cruzio have been monitoring the fire with cameras up at the summit, and Monday night the flames got a little too close. The equipment has survived but power is now the problem as PG&E cut power to the site as a precaution. The Cruzio equipment is now running on a backup battery.

“We’ll be bringing a generator on site, we’ll run that generator during the day to re-supply the battery backup that we have in place,” said Frost, “and so we’d charge it during the day and then leave the site at night.”

This has put a hitch in operations because the battery life is just 24 hours, but Cruzio is prepared for these types of situations.

“So as far as executing the plan, we’re ready to go. It’s just a matter of whether the schedule can handle it,” said Frost.

Cruzio expects power to be out at the site for at least the next week.