Riverbed Company 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 $21,000 remained undamaged after the fire. Damaged merchandise with an original selling price of $15,500 had a net realizable value of $5,300. Compute the amount of the loss as a result of the fire, assuming that the corporation had no insurance coverage. Amount of the loss $