I don’t know where the stuff came from. I really doubt it was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars given the hand to mouth existence of most of the folks there. If it was worth a lot, then it was probably the master tenants’ stuff.
Having been in a warehouse space (well, a Quonset hut) not that far aware that looked at having sprinklers put in, I assure you that it is both expensive and non-trivial to do so. It was so expensive that my hackerspace didn’t move from our old (original) space into it because no one could afford the expense. Most warehouses don’t have them. I have friends leading efforts to give away (literally) hundreds of sprinklers to such groups right now in response to the fire.
