Fire and burglary safes are designed, constructed and rated differently for two categories of loss prevention; fire and burglary. When you are looking to protect important documents, money, jewelry, or heirlooms, safes are an important element to help you with your goals. First Lock & Security Technologies delves into which safe is better for your needs.
Fire Safe
Home fires are tragic and can often destroy more than just the structure. Important documents can be lost, even when the fire is minimal. Fire safes are specifically designed to keep sensitive papers from burning. Encased in a metal housing to form a box, the safe uses thick insulating fire brick material. Though they can be relatively easily pried open, the metal casing is often thin on fire safes and just enough to hold the fire brick material in place. If you are looking for just fire protection, keep in mind this safe is a fire safe and not a burglary safe. These safes do not protect against burglars trying to get to the contents, though it is fine for keeping papers and items protected from fire and nosey people. Just because it has a metal shell and a combination lock on the door, do not be sold short by thinking a fire safe will protect your valuables from burglars.
Burglary Safe
Resisting forcible entry attacks, burglary safes are designed with steel plates welded together to form a box with an even thicker steel door. The rating of a burglary safe is determined by the thickness of the solid steel in combination with the mechanism of the door’s locking and relocking devices. To increase the security upon triggering, the relocking devices are additional lock bolts which are triggered by a forced entry attack on the safe, which makes it more challenging to work around the locking device’s obstacles. The higher rating the safe is awarded, the thicker the steel and more advanced the locking mechanism.
Fire and Theft Combination Safes
When you want protection from fires and burglaries, these safes are constructed with thick steel, fire brick material and locking and relocking devices. As such, these safes tend to be bulky and heavy. Especially in the smaller size safes, when selecting a safe of this type of application, consideration must be given to the ratio of storage space compared with overall outside dimensions. The place in your home that you have in mind to set the safe needs to be considered. To make storing and accessing jewelry convenient, some safes include options such as easy to use electronic push-button locks and velvet lined pull trays.
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When you are looking for a high-quality safe, call First Lock & Security Technologies or come by our showroom and get a feel for how these ratings and sizes work. Our experts will help you find the perfect fit for your needs and specs. We have several models to choose from and with various sizes, dimensions, special features and characteristics, First Lock & Security Technologies is your number one expert!