Protecting your valuables from fire is something that not too many people concern themselves with. It is however, something we should all think about. Every year hundreds of thousands of fires break out in homes across the country, leaving families with great loss and devastation. While almost all items can be replaced after a fire has caused damage to or destroyed a home, some things simply cannot be.
There are also a number of items that can take a lot of time and trouble to replace. Of course, the hope is that we will never have to face such devastation. To be on the safe side however, a fire proof safe is something that every household should own. Keeping in the safe irreplaceable and hard to replace documents such as birth certificates, property deeds, social security cards, passports and more is a simple way to be prepared for an unfortunate event.
Fire proof safes can be found with a variety of protection levels. No safe can actually be labeled fire proof, but instead safes are labeled at different levels of fire resistant protection. Fire resistant safes come labeled with the length of protection they provide. Fireproof safes can provide 30 minutes of protection through a few hours of protection, depending on how they are built.
Fire resistant safes also provide protection to the items inside the safe, keeping the temperature levels at 350 degrees or less. Underwriters Laboratories is an independent company that tests and classifies fire resistant safes. They look at two different things when testing fire resistant safes. First, they look at the highest temperature the inside of the safe reaches during a fire. Second, they look at how long the safe will withstand a fire. They label fire resistant safes as either a 350 or a 125. The 350 label lets you know that the inside of the safe will not go beyond 350 degrees when exposed to a direct flame. These safes are great for protecting paper documents. The 125 label lets you know the inside of the safe will not go beyond 125 degrees when exposed to the direct flame of a fire. These safes are meant to protect electronic equipment like computer CD’s and flash drives.
Underwriter laboratories also classifies safes on the length of time they can withstand the fire. Fireproof safes made for the home usually are made to withstand fire for 30 minutes, 1 hour or 2 hours. Fire proof safes also come in a variety of shapes and sizes to suit just about everyone’s space needs. Small ones are available for those just needing space for a few paper documents, while larger ones are available for those wishing to keep larger items protected. Finally, if you need to protect large amounts of paper files from fire you can also find fire resistant file cabinets. These are especially great for people who run a business out of their home and need the extra space for business papers and documents.