I was immeadiatly impressed with the condition of the romex outside the panel vs the interior of the panel. Seems like the panel box did a good job of preventing spread of fire into the cavity above it. Yet I don't see any extra layers of sheetrock, like I have to put when installing a panel into a fire rated wall. It looks to me like the panel itself provided good protection against fire spread. Makes one wonder about all the extra precautions work required when installing a panel into a fire wall, per various building codes. I wonder what the picture would look like if there was wood studs instead of metal ones. That might also have made the difference in containing the spread.
