SAFES
Fire Safes: The Ultimate
Buyer’s – and Seller’s – Guide
» » THERE’S MORE TO CHOOSING A
fire safe than you might think. The
different certification systems, safe
constructions and compromises
between capacity, security, cost and fire
ratings can be confusing.
Get it wrong, and you could end up
with a fire safe that simply isn’t right for
the documents, data or specialist items
you want to keep safe.
Knowing all the facts not only means
you are best equipped as a buyer, but
also as a seller and installer. Don’t get
caught red handed by recommending
the wrong product…
Safe Fire Ratings Explained
You’re likely to find a lot of different
language used by safe manufacturers and
retailers to describe fire safes, including:
• Fireproof
• Fire resistant
• Fire tested
• Fire rated
The truth is that no safe is considered
100% fire proof.
In the simplest terms, (more on this
later), safe fire ratings are measured
in terms of the amount of time they
protect the contents from fire, and the
kind of item they are designed to protect
(documents/data/etc). They are generally
rated from 25 minutes to two hours.
Which level of fire rating is right for
you depends on a few different factors,
including:
• What you are storing inside –
domestic customers looking to store
passports and personal documents
may be fine with a 30-minute rated
safe, whereas business customers
with mission-critical hard drives will
want additional protection.
• Your insurance requirements –
some insurance policies will demand
that safes come with a certain level of
fire rating.
• The location of your safe / property
– in urban areas where fire service
response times are lower, 30 minutes
may provide sufficient protection.
60
For rural properties or large
commercial buildings, a higher fire
rating may be more prudent.
• The fire risk – for commercial
businesses on sites with a higher fire
risk, or whose business comes with a
risk of fire, a higher fire rating may be
required.
What do you Want to Keep
in Your Fireproof Safe?
The primary question you need to
ask yourself when choosing a fire safe is
what you want to store inside?
Fireproof safes fall into three main
categories.
Documents
The most common reason people
choose a fire safe is to protect
documents. Paper has quite a high
ignition point (233°C, though it starts
to char at 177°C). Document safes are
designed to protect the contents from
flames and smoke, whilst keeping the
internal temperature well below the
ignition point for a defined period of
time.
Data
High temperatures can cause
catastrophic damage and loss of data
stored on hard drives. Data safes aren’t
just designed to protect against flames –
they also shield the contents from high
temperatures for a defined period of
time. These safes are ideal for storing
invaluable business data stored on hard
drives.
Specialist
Some items, (like specialist optical
media, discs, old camera film and
negatives) are extremely susceptible to
high temperatures and magnetic fields.
Specialist safes designed to protect these
items focus on keeping temperatures
inside as low as possible in case of fire.
This enhanced temperature resistance
usually comes at a significant cost to
security.
Fire Safe Insurance Ratings
As with any safe, you will also want to
ensure that the safe has a security rating that
satisfies your insurance requirements.
All safes come with an insurance rating
measured in cash values, from £1,000 -
£100,000 or more. This is the amount of
cash you can store inside it for insurance
purposes – and you can store valuables up
to ten times the cash value inside.
Fail to get a safe with the right level of
insurance rating, and your insurer may
refuse to pay out in the event you need to
claim.
Fireproof Safe vs Security
Safe – What’s the Difference?
The difference between an ordinary safe
and a fire safe comes down to the design
and materials used in its construction:
Security safes
Security safes are designed primarily
to prevent people from getting into
them. Thick metal walls, filled with
combinations of concrete, steel, ball
bearings, wire wool and other reinforcing
materials make it as hard as possible for
would be thieves to drill their way in.
Fire safes
With fire safes, the primary objective
is different – it’s to keep the contents safe
from fire, and to keep temperatures inside
the safe down. Instead of using concrete
reinforced with metal (which conducts
heat), the walls of fireproof safes are filled
with advanced, fire-resistant foam that
doesn’t conduct heat in the same way.
Unfortunately, this foam simply isn’t
as strong as reinforced concrete, which
makes them easier to break into than
security safes.
Double walled fire safes
It is possible to create more secure fire
safes, by using a double walled system.
These safes include both a security wall and
a fire insulating wall. This provides a balance
between security and fire resistance, but
does mean reduced internal capacity…
JUL/AUG 2019
locksmithjournal.co.uk
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