Ayayai Corp. lost most of its inventory in a fire in December, just before the year-end physical inventory was taken. The corporation's books disclosed the following: Merchandise with a selling price of $38,000 remained undamaged after the fire. Damaged merchandise with an original selling price of $26,000 had a net realizable value of $8,600. (a) Calculate the amount lost because of the fire, assuming that the corporation had no insurance coverage. Loss of inventory due to fire $