Do Fire Safes Work?

photo credit: ARHiggins

Most people never think that they will have a fire occur in their home. In the U.S. in 2001 there were nearly 400,000 residential structural fires. The average fire occurs every 80 seconds, with an average total loss of over $14,000.00 per occurrence; the property loss for the year 2001 was over $5.6 Billion.

Home fires are very rare, but when they occur, are the documents, jewelry, cash, and other important valuables going to survive?  With the possibility of losing these valuables and the prices of safes coming down, many homeowners are choosing to invest in a fire safe.

Fire safes are actually not fireproof, but actually fire resistant.  Provided there is enough heat for a long enough time, everything will burn.  To make a safe fire proof, perlite and vermiculite are two of the most common ingredients in fire proof doors, cabinets as well as safes. Both are very light in weight, inorganic, inert and fire proof. Various manufacturers add additional chemicals and process to enhance their products.

These types of safes are designed with a UL rating.  Determining your needs will help you decide how high of a UL rating that you need.  The average business fire in the United States burns at approximately 800°F for 20 minutes. Fireproof safes and fireproof filing cabinets are UL tested to withstand a temperature of 1700°F for an entire hour.

There are fire proof safes that are rated for 1, 2, or 3 hours.  If the safe will be within minutes of the nearest fire department, it is highly unlikely that you will need a 2 or 3 hour rated safe.

In a fire, a fire proof safe will typically protect your valuables, but they are then often damaged by the water used to extinguish the fire!  Fire hoses can dump 100-250 gallons per minute on a fire.  It doesn't take much of that to penetrate the safe to destroy your precious documents.  Getting a waterproof version of the fireproof safe is a wise investment.

Lastly, if you are planning to store any type of media such as computer disks, backup tapes, or microfilm in your safe, you should insure that your safe is also rated for "Media". Otherwise, your papers and valuables may survive the fire just fine, but your disks may be melted.

Purchasing a fireproof safe is a wise investment and can make minimize the losses from a fire.