Before I say anything more and look like an ass. Is the family some place safe and warm? Are they holed up with family, friends, something? In these troubled times, it'll get mighty expensive to be holed up in a motel.
Sprinkler is only used in buildings with either lots of people or really big buildings, or those with high risks.
Sprinkler also would have completely totalled the machines. Sprinkler systems are _extremely_ expensive.
There are alternatives that could have put out the fire and save the machines but for a person or a family, these are simply way too costly.
I really want to pursue this, but I don't want it to degrade into an offshoot discussion here. I'll leave it to the moderators to decide? I'll try my best.
To wit, there was an archive building that stored Civil war documents amongst other things. The Archivists there absolutely did not want sprinkler systems, period. The documents were old and often written with iron ink. Water would destroy some documents base material and/or even "rust" the ink out. So the entire building was constructed without any water sprinkler system or even any fire suppression system at all since the alternatives are too expensive or too hazardous. The documents alone were worth their weight in gold, if not to historians but also to genealogists.
Like this place, the worst happened and a fire started. Just like this building, it was a concrete structure and the fire fed on 100+ year old documents, artifacts and whatever. There was absolutely nothing to stop the fire and it destroyed nearly the entire collection.
Archivists learned a hard lesson and other like buildings were retrofitted with water sprinkler systems or alternative systems where funds could be appropriated. The lesson was simple and painfully obvious.
An unimpeded fire is completely destructive. Once something burns, there is no salvaging it. Water, however, is not always completely destructive and with quick action and basic understanding of the nature of the materials, items can be salvaged. This guy didn't just lose his arcade, but he lost his family photos, clothes, memorabilia, documents,
everything. It's very fortunate he still has his life and family, but the reconstruction of his life can just as easily tear a family apart. With water damage, all of that is still recoverable with the exception of mold (which there is a procedure for depending on the severity of the mold and the importance of the item in question).
Besides, a good sprinkler system would not have destroyed every machine. An entire sprinkler system does not "switch on" if there is a fire in a single room. That is inefficient and would probably result in total loss in water pressure anyways.
Every single one of us should learn a good lesson from this. Everyone needs to re-evaulate their safety and take the necessary precautions to protect their family, home and investment (is an arcade cabinet an investment?)
BTW, I just have to say this. That Solar Fox artwork looks sweet. I gotta find me one.
edit: fixed errant tag
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Topic: What a horrible loss of machines.......please see post (Read 21400 times)
