> commandeer fuel at gunpoint to run their generators if they need to, which is a cute fantasy.
Indeed it is. But sometimes real life has odd moments, and some data can be extraordinarily important:
> The dramatic rescue of title books from doomed abstract businesses proved a greater public good when all official land records were lost [in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871]. John G. Shortall, who forced a passing wagon driver at gunpoint to load his records, would thereafter be remembered for more than the arrangement of legal conveyances.
> Shortall and Hoard, Jones and Sellers and Chase Brothers and Co. - who have saved nearly all of their papers, including the indices to every piece of property in Cook County, and actual abstracts to a large proportion of this property. We have one firm - J.H. Rees and Co. - who has saved copies of all the maps and all the plats ever made of Cook County property.
> In April 1872, the Burnt Records Act was passed by the Illinois Legislature, and the existing abstract records of the three companies were made admissible as evidence in all courts of record.
Indeed it is. But sometimes real life has odd moments, and some data can be extraordinarily important:
> The dramatic rescue of title books from doomed abstract businesses proved a greater public good when all official land records were lost [in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871]. John G. Shortall, who forced a passing wagon driver at gunpoint to load his records, would thereafter be remembered for more than the arrangement of legal conveyances.
> Shortall and Hoard, Jones and Sellers and Chase Brothers and Co. - who have saved nearly all of their papers, including the indices to every piece of property in Cook County, and actual abstracts to a large proportion of this property. We have one firm - J.H. Rees and Co. - who has saved copies of all the maps and all the plats ever made of Cook County property.
> In April 1872, the Burnt Records Act was passed by the Illinois Legislature, and the existing abstract records of the three companies were made admissible as evidence in all courts of record.
https://www.ctic.com/history2.aspx