Fire Takes Collection-Maybe Ali Global Card Review book project too

[Box-Cards]

A sad note to those who'd viewed my previous posts, card image offerings, or took interest in the "Ali Global Collectible Card Review" book publication project I was in the middle of authoring:

At 10:30 PM on Monday, July 8th, a fire determined to be of electrical origins erupted in my home's Second Floor tucked away, boxing-collectibles/card-collection/library and computer workstation room in our 1929 circa house. I had previously been working some 5-7 straight hours up there on the Ali Global Review, breaking for supper around 7:30 PM, and my wife, son and I were downstairs at that time.

At around 3:00 AM the firefighters finished their work and my wife and I were escorted back in allowed to retrieve anything immediately needed before the structure was to be boarded up as unlivable due to extensive water/smoke damage throughout from the attic all the way down to the basement. My wife followed our escort into the first floor--I took a quick side trip up the stairs to my second floor computer/collectibles room where the fire started, aware there were a couple of firemen still making sure nothing was still smouldering. Everything that once was in that room was completely destroyed: $6-8 Gs of computer workstation equipment; possibly $150-200 Gs of my long standing, extensive boxing card collections and other type boxing collectibles; everything connected to over 2-1/2 decades of serious international research connected with global boxing card productions especially the Ali Global Review project...and my last 2 plus years of formal work invested into authoring the Clay/Ali Card Review book itself.

I had put together and been using multiple computers among numerious other graphic support equipment while working on the Ali Global Review, backing up progress on external hard drives that, unfortunately, were located in the same room that burned; 4 bookcases filled with nothing but card binders went up along with everything additionally stored along one entire wall with fitted floor to ceiling floor with 18" deep shelves stuffed with cardboard, 500-count, card-boxes completely filled with more boxing cards and sets. My entire, personal Ali-card collection had been out and open on a work desk next to my primary Mac G5 computer. The desk itself reduced to ashes, let alone the collection that had been on it. There's more I could list here that was stored elsewhere in the room, including an extensive collection of uncut boxing card sheets, but I'll leave it at this for here and now.

Saddest part, I then learned from my wife that nothing of those sorts in the room had been added to our home insurance's schedules where I always thought it all had been covered (my wife had worked at MET Insurence Company's Home Office as a Methods & Procedures Specialist for over 30 years, which company handled all our insurances; thus she was the one in our family who always handled those type insurance matters...and she had never added my collections to our schedule.)

Thankfully, other then my own personal room's property losses, we were extremeldy well covered. The house is to be cutted and rebuilt from roof to finished basement all brand new with all its other lost contents replaced.

As for where I now stand regarding anything once in that room, there is one long-shot chance I might be able to recover the data that was on the 3-internal hard drives of my primary computer tower, including my past research and prior book work related to the Ali Global Review project...but I'm not counting on it. The external housing of my main Mac G5 computer was made entirely of heavy gauge metal, not of plastic components. Scorched on its outsides, its insides weren't directly exposed to the actual fire but just to its heat. Once the dust from the event settles a bit more, I will be searching for some expert computer "forensic" specialist to see if any data stored on its 3-internal hard drives can be extracted--my only hope in recovering anything. If that proves successful, the Ali Global Card Review project and all its research are in there and I will be devoting all my attentions and passions to seeing that project's finished publication sees the light of day. If it isn't there any more and was destroyed, I don't believe I'll be starting that project over again from scratch, having to find some new passion elsewhere.

Don't worry, though, even if its not--someone, somewhere and at some future time will likely take that same project to heart and bring it to the hobby. More importantly, I took some smoke and spent a day in the hospital recovering but neither my wife, son, nor our house pets were hurt or ever in any danger. That's what really counts after all is said and done...