A Sad Time For All Of Us

[AF6LJ]

Sadness fills the skies as this news has come across my desk.
Hewlett-Packard Historical Archive Destroyed In California Fires
From Slashdot...


Hewlett-Packard Historical Archive Destroyed In California Fires (pressdemocrat.com) 55
Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday October 29, 2017 @06:34PM from the out-of-print dept.
An anonymous reader quotes the Press Democrat:
When deadly flames incinerated hundreds of homes in Santa Rosa's Fountaingrove neighborhood earlier this month, they also destroyed irreplaceable papers and correspondence held nearby and once belonging to the founders of Silicon Valley's first technology company, Hewlett-Packard. The Tubbs fire consumed the collected archives of William Hewlett and David Packard, the tech pioneers who in 1938 formed an electronics company in a Palo Alto garage with $538 in cash. More than 100 boxes of the two men's writings, correspondence, speeches and other items were contained in one of two modular buildings that burned to the ground at the Fountaingrove headquarters of Keysight Technologies. Keysight, the world's largest electronics measurement company, traces its roots to HP and acquired the archives in 2014 when its business was split from Agilent Technologies -- itself an HP spinoff.

The Hewlett and Packard collections had been appraised in 2005 at nearly $2 million and were part of a wider company archive valued at $3.3 million. However, those acquainted with the archives and the pioneering company's impact on the technology world said the losses can't be represented by a dollar figure... Karen Lewis, the former HP staff archivist who first assembled the collections, called it irresponsible to put them in a building without proper protection. Both Hewlett-Packard and Agilent earlier had housed the archives within special vaults inside permanent facilities, complete with foam fire retardant and other safeguards, she said. "This could easily have been prevented, and it's a huge loss," Lewis said.

Lewis has described the collection as "the history of Silicon Valley ... This is the history of the electronics industry." Keysight Technologies spokesman Jeff Weber said the company "is saddened by the loss of documents that remind us of our visionary founders, rich history and lineage to the original Silicon Valley startup."

23 Californians were killed in the fires, which also destroyed 6,800 homes, and Weber says Keysight had taken "appropriate and responsible" steps to protect the archive, but "the most destructive firestorm in state history prevented efforts to protect portions of the collection."

https://slashdot.org/story/17/10/29/2225212/hewlett-packard-historical-archive-destroyed-in-california-fires

[radhaz]

Sad indeed. Hopefully the digitizing process was well underway.

[Mr. Scram]

This is the third thread on the subject.

[AF6LJ]

This is the third thread on the subject.

I didn't know that.

[EEVblog]

[EEVblog]

The buildings:

[EEVblog]

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/12/wine-country-inferno-singes-keysight-technologies-santa-rosa-hq-complex-viable/

[EEVblog]

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/7559762-181/hewlett-packard-archives-at-keysight-destroyed

[Mr. Scram]

Apparently, 49 employees lost their homes too. It's hard to describe what such a loss means, but it seems Keysight is looking out for them.

[Pinkus]

I am not a fire expert and where I live we do not know such fires. Can somebody please explain me why all the surrounding trees and bushes are OK but just the buildings in the middle burned down? Where did the fire came from? I always thought that such a fire rampage was eating its way through everything in its way ... but apparently not here.

[KE5FX]

The buildings:

Ouch.  That looks like something out of Tarkovsky. 

[IanB]

I am not a fire expert and where I live we do not know such fires. Can somebody please explain me why all the surrounding trees and bushes are OK but just the buildings in the middle burned down? Where did the fire came from? I always thought that such a fire rampage was eating its way through everything in its way ... but apparently not here.

It looks strange, doesn't it?

I think what happens is that burning embers carry on the wind and lodge in some place where they can ignite combustible material and start a fire. Buildings are dry and flammable while trees and bushes are green and wet.

[rsjsouza]

I am not a fire expert and where I live we do not know such fires. Can somebody please explain me why all the surrounding trees and bushes are OK but just the buildings in the middle burned down? Where did the fire came from? I always thought that such a fire rampage was eating its way through everything in its way ... but apparently not here.

It looks strange, doesn't it?

I think what happens is that burning embers carry on the wind and lodge in some place where they can ignite combustible material and start a fire. Buildings are dry and flammable while trees and bushes are green and wet.

Exactly. When there is a nearby fire or, due to the magnitude of this event a "not-so-nearby" fire, the temperature causes massive air displacements that can make a massive number of embers of considerable size travel significant distances. Here in Dallas I have heard how entire neighbourhoods were consumed by fire due to this effect.

[AF6LJ]

There is an ongoing fight between the Feds (ICE) and the local Sheriff, and others regarding an individual who is known to start fires. Down here in the south end of the state we have a constant problem of illegals starting fires in the back country. Wildfire is a big problem in the south end of the state, we have had two wildfire complexes that exceeded 250,000 acers in the last fifteen years in San Diego County alone.
 

[MT]

[EEVblog]

Official response from Keysight, which says nothing.
http://about.keysight.com/en/newsroom/backgrounders/archive/

[Electro Detective]

I am not a fire expert and where I live we do not know such fires.

Can somebody please explain me why all the surrounding trees and bushes are OK but just the buildings in the middle burned down?

Where did the fire came from? I always thought that such a fire rampage was eating its way through everything in its way ... but apparently not here.

yeah, that looks suss how it defies fire physics like that, the trees and bushes may be asbestos plants   

Get ready for the fugly high rise shoe box apartments to go up.. or does such easy profiteering only happen in Australia ? 

[Tom45]

Here is a "before" photo from Google Earth. The two burned buildings had flat roofs. Probably wind born embers landed on them and set them ablaze. The neighboring buildings aren't flat, and look like they might be tile roofs. The flat roofs could have been tar roofs.

[Electro Detective]

All the other pioneering electronics companies better fire up their scanners asap   

before hot winds, floods, twisters, torchers, rioters, looters unemployed STD Klingons mercing for scumbag developers do them them over too     

[Mechatrommer]

The two burned buildings had flat roofs. Probably wind born embers landed on them and set them ablaze.

i dont think any civil engineering code calls for combustible roofing... but after seeing some wildfires footages in youtube, its possible the wind born embers landed on something else combustible surrounding (or get inside) the building. i was thinking of "planned destruction for another development" plot by some sith lord like usually happened "somewhere", but i dont think there is such a notion in america...

[Mr. Scram]

i dont think any civil engineering code calls for combustible roofing... but after seeing some wildfires footages in youtube, its possible the wind born embers landed on something else combustible surrounding (or get inside) the building. i was thinking of "planned destruction for another development" plot by some sith lord like usually happened "somewhere", but i dont think there is such a notion in america...

Leaves or pine needles in gutters are a well known factor in fires. They greatly increase the likelihood of a building catching fire.

I think this might be the Keysight campus, in which case it wouldn't help anyone for the buildings to be gone, because Keysight would get to say what'd happen. The  burn patterns don't appear too remarkable to me. I've seen total destruction next to intact items on the fringes of devastated areas before. It can be very surreal.

[EEVblog]

Before & After

[schmitt trigger]

My two cents:
One would have thought that a high-tech company like Keysight, would have had scanned and converted to electronic format all those archives.

And once in electronic format, would have saved them locally and in cloud storage.....

[EEVblog]

I am not a fire expert and where I live we do not know such fires. Can somebody please explain me why all the surrounding trees and bushes are OK but just the buildings in the middle burned down? Where did the fire came from? I always thought that such a fire rampage was eating its way through everything in its way ... but apparently not here.

Quite common, airborne embers:
https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/plan-and-prepare/know-your-risk

I live in an area where the bush or grasslands meet built-up areas
What to expect:
Fires can spread quickly from parks and reserves, threatening your home, fences or gardens
Thick smoke from the fire might make it difficult to see or breathe
Even if you live a few streets back from the bush, you are at risk from ember attack
Burning embers can travel through the air, setting fire to homes a few streets back from the bush
Embers may land for many hours even after the main fire front has passed

[EEVblog]

My two cents:
One would have thought that a high-tech company like Keysight, would have had scanned and converted to electronic format all those archives.
And once in electronic format, would have saved them locally and in cloud storage.....

Especially one that employs a full time archivist:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/devon-dawson-a119169/