Record or Fire Safes
are Built to Protect Documents from Fire
If you keep valuables
or documents on your premises that would be destroyed in the event of
fire, you need to have and use a properly rated fire safe or fire
resistant file for storage.
Statistics
show that if a company's records are lost in a fire, 17% can no longer
furnish a financial statement, 14% suffer a reduction in credit rating and
43% go out of business completely. No home or business is safe from fire.
Record or fire safes are designed and
built to protect records, important papers, cash and valuables from fire. Some
are also rated for burglary protection.
The manufacturing
process for all record or fire safes, manufactured in the United States, is much
the same. They begin with a hollow welded or a hollow molded composite metal box
or can, this will be filled with a "wet" mix that looks much like concrete, they
are dried in kilns, cleaned, finished and painted. This "wet" mix this is a very
specialized product, when it is dried and sets up, it retains cells of moisture
within the structure. These cells of moisture, when exposed to heat,
change to steam, which is released into the interior of the container. The steam
that is released perform two main functions, it keeps the interior temperature
below 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for a prescribed time, and also provides a
pressure seal for the small openings around the door, keeping heat and flames
out. This release of steam is also why anything that will be damaged by moisture
including, stamp collections, photographs, audio & video tapes, and computer
data, should never be kept in a fire safe.
Most US manufactured
record or fire safes are "labeled" or certified to meet the test requirements of
Underwriters Laboratories. The following is a typical test criteria; U.L.
Label/Class 350° - 1 hour: The safe will maintain an interior temperature less
than 350°F when exposed to fire for a period of one hour at 1700°F. Safe must
successfully undergo all other requirements for the Fire Endurance Test,
Explosion Hazard Test and the Fire/Impact Test. Some are only labeled with a
manufacturers label, or some other testing facility, whose criteria may or may
not be as stringent as UL's. You should be sure to check with your professional
safe dealer, to have a full understanding of your safe label.
Click here to view
information on UL® fire labels.
|
