Buying fire proof file cabinets is your first step towards providing physical and financial security to your precious home and business in the form of safekeeping your most important documents and data from the rampage of fire. When tragedy strikes, it strikes without warning, and never for a moment think that fires and floods are impossible events, especially when flash floods and hurricanes are on the rise every summer, terrorising almost not only the coastal areas but the central plains as well. Nothing in life is an unlikely event, and the worst is when disaster strikes, you have not made sufficient protection to safeguard your hard earned investments and assets. Surprisingly enough, fireproof file cabinets serve the purpose most effectively.
Often, at this juncture, many of my readers will start to contemplate sceptically what documents they need that could be so critical that might affect your lives in the aftermath of a fire. Now consider a few to the likes of birth certificates, death certificates, citizenship papers, passports, marriage certificates and divorce papers all of which are critical in ensuring our eligibility to claim life insurance monies, apply for government grants, claiming marriage and divorce privileges, just to name a few important financial transactions. Home title deeds, and home loan documents are important financing papers that you will need to refer to at times of refinancing, or when you are considering taking up a mortgage against your home. And while most men do not bother with safekeeping their jewellery, women are key users of safe for jewellery.
Suddenly, finding the right fireproof file cabinets becomes a paramount task that you need to see to almost immediately now. While this is an important task, it need not be a daunting one. There are a wide variety of models and designs to choose from. The cabinets are also designed to protect different types of items, and vary from different levels of fireproof security and protection.
You need to know what you will be using the fire proof file cabinets for, that is, what items you will be keeping in them. This fact will help you narrow down your choice and expedite your purchase with ease. What you intend to keep in the cabinets will define the level of fire proof authenticity, largely known and trusted around the world as the UL ratings, or the Underwriter’s Laboratories ratings which tests and labels all safes and fireproof cabinets. By a UL rating of 1, 2, or 3, this literally means that the safe or cabinet is capable of withstanding external heat from 1700 to 2000 degrees F for 1, 2, 3 hours.
Often, this means that the internal heat will not exceed 350 degrees F for paper items and 125 degrees F for media items like video tapes and digital storage gadgets.
And since digital and video storage such as CDs and DVDs, photos, flash drives etc, are much more susceptible to fire, they are lowered to 125 degrees F and 80 percent humidity to ensure no physical items and data is lost in the fire.
And one more key aspect you need to note is that all fireproof file cabinets are water resistant in the event of a fire due to the fact that the pressure within cabinet will keep the water out. However, that said, in the absence of fire, there will be no positive pressure from the fire and hence water seepage can occur.