Tragedy in Ice and Fire

During the bitterly cold and blustery night on January 16, 2024, four separate fire departments scrambled to the farm and equipment showroom of a Mennonite businessman in rural Ohio. 

With the wind chill around -11F, the water from the fire trucks froze almost as soon as it exited their hoses. Not only did the water fail to put out the fire, but it turned the ground into a hazardous field of ice. The crews from the fourteen assembled trucks also battled frozen hydrants and low supply ponds from which they drew their water. Complicating matters, the wind itself made the fire even more dangerous and unpredictable. 

Though no one was injured, little could ultimately be done to save the property. 

In the aftermath, one ioSafe fireproof and waterproof data storage device was pulled from the rubble. It had withstood several hours engulfed in flames as well as the blow of a concrete wall that had collapsed on top of it. Norman Reed, the business’s IT servicer, recounts what happened when he opened the ioSafe device, “To my surprise, upon removing the screw holding the cover, I heard a distinct whoosh sound, akin to opening a soda can. Remarkably, the drives inside are in excellent condition, successfully preserving our crucial company files amidst the destructive fire.”

This lamentable event shows how our fireproof and waterproof products can keep an unforeseen disaster from killing your business. If you lose critical data like financial or customer records to broken plumbing, flood, or fire, your business is very unlikely to recover. Protect your data—and your home or business—with fireproof and waterproof data storage. Because Norman equipped this business with an ioSafe device, it will survive, even though its showroom didn’t.