Are gun safes really fire proof? This is a question that is asked often, and the honest answer is that a fire “proof” gun safe does not exist. In fact, there have never been ANY safes made that are fire proof. What a fire rated safe does offer is fire “resistance.” I know we’re splitting hairs, but our goal is to be honest and not misleading.

There are many gun safes that claim to be fire proof. Not only that but they claim to offer fire protection, when really there is nothing more than a piece of sheetrock inside of the body of the safe. These gun safes may or may not have fire protection in their doors. Look for companies like American Security that use a special mix called DryLight insulation which is poured between the steel walls of the safe. This special mix of DryLight insulation fills up every corner, unlike the sheetrock, and gives you real fire protection.

Here’s an example. We had a customer that had the American Security BF6030 Gun Safe filled with his precious baseball card collection, worth a large amount of money. One day, his house started on fire and burned to the ground. We had to come drill open his safe since it was badly damaged in the fire and he could not open it. The good news is that his baseball card collection was still in  good condition. We know from experience that the American Security BF Series gun safes work.

If the American Security gun safe is not in your price range. look for gun safes that have had their fire rating independently certified  and offer at least a 60 minutes of fire protection. Many safe manufacturers use independent companies to do their gun safe fire testing. Unfortunately, there is no one standard that is applied when these safes are tested. If you will be protecting important documents inside this gun safe, we recommend purchasing a small UL rated fire safe to place inside your gun safe to give you added peace of mind.  This is why an Underwriters Laboratory (UL) test is important – because UL DOES have a standard for testing. For more explanation of UL ratings, please click here.