Smoke damage

[Wyckyd1]

Ok,
This one was asked of me and I wasn't absolutely sure so I figured I'd get some input from the group (usually always get something insightful here).
Small company had a fire in one room (of course the room holding the server, phone equipment, router, etc).
The sprinkler system came on and saturated the entire office (overnight fire). I am told there was 3 inches of water. There were some computers sitting on the floor. It was also told that one that was sitting on the floor was left on and still running.
However, there was smoke damage throughout the office. There was soot over everything including the computers. I was told that one computer was opened and there was black caked over everything inside.
Since the computer are left running overnight the fans were running so indeed they probably inhaled the smoke.
So insurance company is coming in but would you render all computers useless or atleast those that are black inside? They don't want to run into problems down the road.
I personally have never had to deal with a fire and electronics (thank heavens). However if it was my personal computer, tv, etc I would probably run it.
Does anyone have personal experience with the damage that smoke can do or doesn't do to electronics, specifically computers? How about water damage, can a computer get wet dry off and run normally?

Have a Good Day!

[Damned Angel]

if it got wet, its done. May not fail right now, but water corrodes, and it will fail prematurly.

I've delt with a few insurance claims, and I have always faild any components that were touched by water.

Would you trust your TV or stereo if they got soaked and then were dried out?

[Gollo]

I would have the insurance cover them all.

1.) You might end up getting better systems
2.) As DA said it will get you in the end

The only thing I would yank from the computers is the HD (or if they boot back up everything and move it to the new computer). Just my 0.02

[Wyckyd1]

THanks for the input.

How about smoke damage? Like when I mentioned machines that are dry but the fans "inhaled" the smoke?

[FatalException0E]

My parents had a fairly major house fire last summer. Their computer was pretty far from the fire, but still close enough to soften the plastic on the front of the system. I didn't even bother with the CD-ROM, floppy, PSU or NIC. The HD still worked fine, and I rebuilt the system in a new case with all the rest of the original stuff. After about a month, the RAM failed, then the mobo. They seem to be running fine now, with only the HD, sound and vid card original. (vid was an ATI AIW, glad it survived) Point is....stuff that doesn't fail now could, and not just from water. There are corrosive things floating around in the smoke. If its a mission-critical system (server), trash it. Only keep the HDs long enough to get your data back. The insurance is there to pay for these things. USE IT!

[geeksRus]

where i used to work we did consulting for a company that dealt with fire salvage/cleanup. my job was to come in and check computers and peripherals that had been in fires. Fatal Exception is right...if the computer was on and inhaled the smoke it should be replaced...if it got wet it should be replaced. save what you can from the HDs and let the rest go. if you don't it will bite you down the road. just my two cents.

[Stanley_Kubrick]

it has been shown that smoke, smokers/smoking can reduce the life of p.c.s and components, especially optical drives. anything you can claim against the insurance now is that much less you will have to deal with two months from now..

[Darren Wilson]

.... but will they detect those @XX CPU's that overheat & burst into flames ??? (Couldn't resist putting that one in )