Guest Post: “Are Safes Safe”

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by AGXIIK, TF Metals Report:

This short analysis was prepared to help settle arguments pro and con regarding the use of fire safes for high value items including, gold, silver, numismatics, cash, stock certificates and important personal papers as well as digital media.

Comments and questions on this article are welcomed and appreciated.

Yesterday there was a video on TFMR showing how a small Sentry safe good for documents, cash and other paper items endured a small fire. These safes might only have half a cu ft in storage space but this one held up well. It’s cheaply made with an easily picked lock but it was reasonably water proof.

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The fire test proved it’s ability to endure 1 hour at 1,750 degrees. The fire proofing is a type of material with water embedded in the matrix which keeps the paper contents safe, unburned and uncharred. It passed the basic test and should hold up well in fire conditions, even a house fire.

The next safe was the standard Sentry 1.24 to 1.5 cu in box with a dual locking system of a battery powered electronic dial and a key lock. Water infused concrete did the job of handling a hot fire in excess of 1500 degrees for 75 minutes. Inside temperature did not get over 250 degrees. All contents were undamaged and in good condition.

I’d say this safe would be a good choice for important papers, cash and a substantial amount of gold or silver. I’ve used a safe like this for over 25 years but never saw it challenged to the extremes that also made it a good choice. Both smaller safes have silica gel packets to keep moisture to a minimum but need to be recharged periodically to avoid the dread condition I call ‘Safe Stank’.

The last test was a full sized gun safe easily capable storing 12-24 guns, ammo, owner manuals, plastic materials and other items. Some are real giants that require special equipment for delivery. The one test most relevant in my judgement was one in which a large gun safe survived a full-on house fire. The safe was removed after home burned andnthe fire department did their job of dousing embers. It was subject to high heat for an extended period as well as being doused with water. FD was not pleased to find the safe was removed from the home site.

One element to gun safe efficacy is the nature of a fire. If it’s a static test fire with a contained flame the object is not subject to convection heating. Static heating is something used to cook a turkey.

A convection fire is more like a blow torch heating that causes immediate temperature increases. Static testing normally does not create the convection currents that cause extreme heat transfer to a fire safe during a house fire. Some tests done in lab conditions, modest in scope and necessarily so, containing the flame and heat. Thus the safe might not be subject to the total heating effect of a house fire.

In the house fire the safe was later removed to a safe location, allowed to cool down and opened using a metal saw. The safe metal was reasonably thick steel and with a concrete liner. This was a HEAVY duty safe.

Once opened, video shots were very revealing. While the safe didn’t have any precious metals it had everything else that could be used as a means to determine the efficacy of any fire rating test. While the outside temperature probably exceeded 1200 degrees for at least an hour, it was estimated that the internal temperature did not come close to that needed to char papers much less melt metal. Some safes will see an internal temp up to 570-600 degrees for 23 minutes but this one saw 1200 degrees for as long as it took the house to burn down.

It appeared that this safe had a 90 minute rating so, in a 1200 plus degree fire, it did it’s job and then some. One caveat. The safe leaked. A suggestion for those storing guns. Fire arms, important papers and cash be put in a water proof air tight plastic bags. Water is always present in a safe, whether in vapor form or H2O that leaked in during a fire.

The safe was filled with long guns, maybe 10-12, plus several polymer framed pistols, loaded plastic magazines and hundreds of rounds of various caliber ammo. The highest temperature in the safe was not recorded but since it was not water proof or air proof it’s likely the inside temp did not exceed 480 degrees, the common point for paper to burn. But it was high enough to cook off some ammo.

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