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Understanding how Fire Safes work

Understanding how Fire Safes work

Fire safes or fire-proof safes not only protect your assets against theft, but they work to secure your items in the case of a fire. Whether you need a safe for the home or a commercial safe, having a fireproof-safe will ensure your assets are protected.

Our fire resistant safes provide fire protection for a period of time, depending on what type of fire rating the safe has. 

What Does Fire Rating Mean?

There are different types of fire ratings which determine what the safe protects and how long the safe protects it for.

Fire Ratings will state first how long the item can withstand in fire and then is followed by what the type of product is.

The typical lengths of times are 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes and 120 minutes. These times indicate how long items can withstand fire for whilst in a particular safe.

For example, the Phoenix Fire Commander FS1913K cabinet has a fire rating of 60 minutes digital.

Types of Fire Ratings

The types of items are broken down into 3 categories; paper, digital media and data. 

Fire rated safes for paper

This type of protection ensures paper stored within the safe is safeguarded against fire damage. This type of protection covers certificates, exam papers or any type of paper related document. Fire-rated filing cabinets that specify they're covered for paper are favoured in schools as they help to store and protect exam papers.

Fire safes for the home will ensure assets such as passports or deeds do not become damaged in the event of a fire. 

Fire rated safes for digital media

If a safe has fire protection for Digital media items, these will be items such as cameras and laptops. If you're worried about fire damage to your mobile phone, a home safe with this fire protection will the best option for you.

Safe's with this fire rating can benefit those who need to store camera equipment in a safe place and without the fear of fire damage. 

Fire rated safes for data

Fire protection for Data products will consist of back up drives and tapes. This will ensure fire protection for discs and fire protection for usbs.

Avoid putting in your safe items that do not match the safes fire rating. For example, do not put digital items into a fire safe that has fire protection against paper. This is because electronics melt at lower temperatures than paper.

 

Fire Certifications for fire rated safes

Fire ratings are only awarded to safes if they have been tested to honour that fire rating. Once fire testing has proved successful, safes and cabinets are awarded a fire certification. These prove that they have been tested and that they have the correct fire rating.

Fire safes are made with special fire-resistant materials- which is what, of course, provides the protection against any potential heat and fire damage, this is usually found in between the gap in each wall. These materials work as insulation to keep the safe cool when exposed to fire.  

Installing a Fire Safe

When it comes to purchasing a fire safe, please check to see if it can be installed or not. This can be done by looking at the 'fixing hole' on the safe's specification. If it doesn't have a fixing hole, this means the safe can only be positioned and not installed. The reason some fireproof safes don't come with fixing holes to allow for installation is because these holes may compromise the safe's fire resistance. 

If you're looking for a fire safe, or even a fireproof cabinet, we sell a wide range from multiple brands including SMP, Chubbsafes, Phoenix, Dudley and Securikey. Please see our full range here.

Here at Total Safe's, we have our own installation team that can install or position your safe to a desired location.

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