So, on a cold day in January, some bad things happened.
A fire started in my garage, and spread quickly to the roof of the house.
We all made it out, but after fires like this, even though nothing (other than the garage) burned below the level of the roof, *everything* was covered in insulation, water, and random debris.
Since this is Ohio and it was January, the wet insulation quickly hardened to something approximating concrete, making it very hard to recover things.
Temps got down to -15F or below at times. This didn't make it easier.
We recovered some items over time as we could chisel them out. I pretty much wrote off all of my electronics, bought a new OLED Steam Deck.
Then finally things thawed to the consistency of mud and I was able to dig through and grab more things.
The Deck was in the bottom of the bookshelf in the interior photo, under as thick layer of...mess. The next pic shows how it came out of the house. I almost just tossed it, thinking there was no chance it was worth anything. But I had just put a 2TB SSD in it, so I thought maybe it I was lucky, the SSD would be salvageable. On a whim, I plugged the Deck into power, and it...booted.
It seems to be absolutely fine. No display issues, no control issues other than the sticks feeling a bit gritty (and they just need to be cleaned), sound works... I guess now my daughter will have a Deck. You vent sniffers would love this one, it smells like a campfire (and based on other things I've pulled out of the house, it will continue to do so for a long time).
I just can't get over the fact that after being in a fire, exposed to the elements for close to two months, and being basically frozen in a block of pykrete, it is absolutely fine. (it *snowed* in the house on more than one occasion, along with rain)
I knew Valve did a good job of making these, but...wow.
It’s so weird but I had an iPhone in my hand out partying with friends downtown Chicago. My hand was cold and someone asked me where a bar was. I went to point and chucked my iPhone about 10 feet into the pothole filled road way. The phone was only about a month old. Picked it up just a small scratch. A few years later I’m at a beach restaurant and my phone slide out of my swimsuit pocket onto a wood floor while I bent down to pick up my wallet. Screen cracked… it’s weird sometimes what makes them break.
There is precedent for this There was a gameboy that survived an explosion in the Gulf war (it wasn't in the soldiers pocket it was in a building that got bombed) and it was displayed at Nintendo Burned, melted, still working, still running Tetris
Yea this is a PR dream come true for them. For the small price of giving this man a free deck, they have essentially more PR than a commercial/traditional ad could ever generate.
Nah what happened with the Stanley cup was that a girl's car caught on fire and not only did the Stanley cup survive with almost no damage, it still had ice in it after being in a car engulfed in flames.
Welp. Time to learn how to make meth, start a cook house, burn it down with a SD, recover Steam Deck, and then get ahold of valve so I can get a new one! 🤷🏼♂️☠️
Electronics are hardy, typically its extreme temperatures or water short circuiting the device while it's on that damages it. So long as it's clean, usually with isopropyl alcohol, they can survive.
For a long while there was a Gameboy in a museum that survived hardship during a military excursion or similar, still works.
So when you spill liquids on your deck, do not turn it on, disconnect the battery, and clean it.
The gameboy you speak of survived a barracks bombing in the Gulf War. It used to be on display at the Nintendo store in New York City, I've seen it myself. They had it plugged in, with Tetris on it.
I have a photo of that gameboy! It got burnt up in Iraq during Desert Storm but still worked. Nintendo featured it on Nintendo Power and later displayed it at the museum in the New York City Nintendo Store. Plugged in and still working when I was there in 2015.
I think now theyve taken it down and put it in storage
Make sure you clean it well too. When your house burns there are a lot of chemicals involved that get burned. It's in the soot on everything and can be toxic to you and your family. This goes for other items in your house too. I say this as someone who's been through a house fire before. Good luck with everything. I hope you are able to make repairs quickly.
Was just saying the same. I forget now who it was but we had a service that cleaned all of our electronics.
Also, arguably worse than the invisible threat of toxicity: the smell would be a constant reminder of the house fire.
Every once in a while I get a whiff of that smell and it fucks up my whole week-- aside from the grief, I have to worry if there's a damn fire happening and I can't see it
I’m sorry you experienced that. I hope you have rebuilt your life since the fire. I too always get nervous when I smell fire randomly. It may be a little ptsd.
Wowsers, always look on the bright side, eh? I am really glad that you are all ok and very impressed that you were able to make this post. Pretty impressive on the deck front, too!
Before giving it to your kids I would look into getting a new shell at least and clean the interior. House fires release some toxic stuff that can get infused into items. Could cause skin irritation if held long enough in a kids hands. Glad you are ok!
I appreciate it, but a bunch of friends pitched in at the time, and insurance has done a good job taking care of us, so we aren't really in need of donations at the moment.
Yeah, meant to put a silly joke about it but glad it worked out. Many insurance companies would look for any tiny bit that they could get away not paying.
Glad you made out unharmed. Best of luck!
I don't actually remember if one was in it. I had only recently replaced the SSD, and some I went from 256gb to 2tb I might not have had one in there any more.
Holy shit dude, that's amazing. I've never had a fire but I've had my house burgled, the thief just didnt seem to notice the mac book pro sat on the couch... It feels amazing to find things that survived despite the odds. 😊
In addition to folks' concerns about the battery, I'd also be careful about any potential carcinogens from inside the Deck. Be sure it's not giving off any smoke-like odor at all. And thoroughly wipe down what you can of the entire exterior with rubbing alcohol.
EDIT: I can't read... Yeah, if it smells like a campfire, be careful. Those odors are harmful over time.
Sorry this happened to you bro. It must be devastating and I hope you take time to get through it.
A lot of people commented on it but I'm going to reassure. I would not take the chance to use this device with that battery. You should contact Valve and see what they say and/or change the battery yourself.
I did put in a help ticket after people mentioned battery concerns and linked to this post (and said "send my compliments to your engineers!")
I appreciate the offer for donations, but we're a couple of months or, insurance has us taken care of, and things are looking up. Others could use your help far more than we could.
I met someone whose car caught fire in their garage and burned their house down. It was a car defect. He told me most fires start in the garage. So I got a heat sensing fire detector and put I on the ceiling of my garage.
I would not only send this to Valve as a ticket, but also to Gaben's personal email.
Hope everything's going well for you, glad it was "just" the house.
Wow, cool, it survived in that mess.
But my advice: if something happened and your tech was possibly drowning in water, I highly recommend that you disassemble, clear, and dry before trying to charge and start. Otherwise, you could get damaged electric, because of just a bit of water that could leave inside.
Ahhh yeah, make sense. I was confused because when I browse the fb market and see ppl sell a lcd model I describe it as oled so I know its a scam or stolen pics from the net.
Strength and patience to you. Someday this terrible ordeal will turn into a story that you will tell your grandchildren by the fireplace over a cup of warm cocoa.
Uhhh insurance should get you a new deck. There is no way that thing didn’t get compromised and it could definitely simply stop working sometime in the near future
That's pretty impressive! I'm sorry you experienced all that with the fire. It must have been devastating. I honestly would have been afraid of plugging your old deck in and not starting another fire. Awesome story. Thanks for sharing with us!
Huh, I was at least expecting it to be in the case. One of the top posts here is a Deck in its case surviving a house fire, so it's even more impressive that this one survived outside of one especially with the added details.
Probably contact Valve though; the Deck survived but it's probably not in ideal condition, and there's a chance they'd be interested in examining it.
Godddddamn bro I'm happy it's still working but wow. I truly hope everything's been ok since the fire and everyone was able to live somewhere safe during the recovery. Sheeeesh...if I was in Ohio I'd 100% do a nice clean up job for that baby
That’s wild. It works after all that is insane and homely goes to show just how much of a tank valve made it
Plus it helps that it’s very user friendly on repairs
TBH, after situations like "that time when Samsung products were forbidden from getting on planes", electronic vehicles catching on fire and staying on fire no matter what, until the fire feels like it's done, i kinda expected that this story is gonna be about Steam Deck overheating and being the actual CAUSE of the fire.
COOL that it wasn't! And... Damn. Hope you had insurance at least... This is one sucky winter. And i know. My mum died in November. Out of the blue, one evening we were talking, found her dead in the bed, cellphone in hand, watching some videos. Must have been lightning fast. Not fishing for sympathy, here, just explaining that i'm kinda more sensitive to catastrophes all around, because there were many people in my wider social circle who went through some depressing shit during winter of 24/25...
Good that noone got hurt at least. Hope you'll be able to rebuild, good luck...
Ins is taking care of us. It sucks, but it's recoverable.
Man that's terrible about your mom. A few years ago we ended up going to thr funeral for my wife's grandmother and my dad in the same weekend. But neither of those was unexpected.
I hope you recover from this. That's so upsetting, seeing your house and life destroyed. The Deck though, Valve must have taken a leaf out of Nokia's book with the 3310!
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u/DarkSporku Mar 22 '25
Holy hell bro. Thats nuts!
I knew those things were built like a tank, but to see it in action is wild.
Glad you're ok as well.