Northern California Wildfire Destroys HP Documents Worth Millions

PALO ALTO, CA -- Archives belonging to William Hewlett and David Packard, founders of the information technology company HP, were destroyed in the Tubbs fire.

The archives included "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," according to an article by The Press Democrat.

The items were appraised for $2 million in 2005 but experts agree the value is much more than that, the newspaper reported.

In a statement, HP said that "archives were established to ensure the 75+ year history was preserved."

"HP’s archives contain hundreds of items related to HP’s founders including many examples of speeches, personal correspondence, writings and other materials," the statement read. "In addition, many other materials from the founders are part of public collections, such as the William Hewlett papers (1907-2010) held by Stanford University."

HP, which is headquartered in Palo Alto, was founded in 1938. As of May 2017, the company was worth $13.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

The Tubbs fire is just one of four wildfires that scorched through the region earlier this month. At least 42 people died in the wildfires.

Photo: An aerial view shows the devastation of the Coffey Park neighborhood after a wildfire swept through Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)