Should Wedding Photos Be Kept in a Fire Resistant Safe?

What is a Fire-Resistant Safe?

Fire resistant safes come in different sizes, allowing for efficient use of space, for extra home or office security. The body and door contains high quality steel and a penetration resistant concrete composite. Hardened steel fire resistant safes are secured with a solid thick steel plate door and secondary re-locking devices. The interior walls are lined with thick fire retardant panelling, which provide for 30 minutes of protection from fire for your valuables and important documents.

How Does a Fire-Resistant Safe Work?

For most fire resistant home safes, a provision of 30 minutes of protection from fire is most common, and generally speaking, 30 minutes should be sufficient, as fires tend to take 20 minutes on average to move through a room or an area in a house. Some safes offer a 1 hour fire protection for documents with the internal temperature not exceeding 150ºC in a 927ºC furnace. As well as offering protection from fire and burglary, some safes also offer water resistance.

Do You Need to Use a Fire-Resistant Safe?

If you want to safeguard ‘hard-to-replace’ items such as precious family photos, birth certificates, passports, wills or bank records, then a fire resistant safe could provide a relatively inexpensive level of protection, while keeping for your important documents and items close at hand.

Is a Fire-Resistant Safe Suitable for Sensitive Data or Media?

It should be noted that while fire resistant safes are engineered to keep the internal temperature of the safe below a certain amount of degrees where paper will start to char and burn, steam and moisture can start to generate inside the safe. In this type of moist environment, any sensitive data or media such as CDs/DVDs and computer disks can be badly damaged or destroyed due to the humidity. If you need to keep such items safe from potential fire, then a fire resistant safe rated for data/media protection should be considered.

Can a Floor Safe Protect Against Fire?

Floor safes offer great protection for valuables if installed correctly into the floor surrounded by concrete, but provide very little protection from fire. The reason conventional floor safes lack a fire rating is due to the door not being reinforced with fire retardant panelling. When the door is exposed to intense heat, there is no way to dissipate the heat and the contents can be destroyed in a short period of time.

Is Fire-Resistant the same as Fire Proof?

Finally, it should be noted that Fire Resistant is NOT Fire Proof! It is important to consider the type of protection you need from a safe before making a purchase. For peace of mind, your requirements can be discussed with our specially trained staff. We offer fire tested and certified fire resistant safes with lengthy structural warranties.