Keysight Technologies has reopened its corporate headquarters in Santa Rosa after wildfires in northern California last month chased away employees.
The test equipment supplier said in a statement Monday that it is still cleaning soot from inside several buildings, repairing minor fire damage, and clearing out debris. Keysight also said that it had rented out office space for employees unable to return to the corporate headquarters.
The company reiterated that its four main buildings only suffered minor damage in wildfires that forced thousands of evacuations in northern California and billions of dollars in property damage. Contrary to local reports last month, Keysight said the fires inflicted the worst damage on two smaller buildings and several cars in its parking lot.
However, other lost property might not be easily replaced. Keysight, the former test division of Hewlett Packard spin-off Agilent Technologies, confirmed in a statement to trade publication EETimes that the flames had consumed a cache of historical documents from founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard stored at the headquarters.
The loss angered and confounded Silicon Valley historians. Keysight said that early products, manuals, and other Hewlett Packard artifacts had not been lost because they were stored in buildings that only sustained minor damage. Other documents had already been backed up digitally.
Keysight, which operates out of 145 locations worldwide, released a statement to tamp down concerns that it could not fulfill orders as it recovers. "As the company restores the Santa Rosa site, it continues to take orders, ship products and otherwise meet the needs of its customers,” the company said.
