What is a Fire Safe Box?

This seems like a trick question.  Is it a fire safe or a box? Actually, it is pretty simple, a fire safe box is a metal box that has been designed to protect the contents during a fire.  While that may seem pretty simple, there are many different types of these boxes being sold today.  Here are some things to consider:

• Most of these boxes are rather small.  They are about 1/2 the size of a briefcase.  If you are planing to use your fire safe box to hold documents in, make sure the inside is at least 11″ tall and 8.5″ wide so you don’t have to fold your papers (if you need to store legal sized documents, you need a safe that is 14″ long).
• It is important to purchase a fire safe that has been tested by underwriters laboratories.  This important feature means that a neutral third party has put this safe through a rigorous set of tests to insure it can live up to the manufacturers claims.
• Confirm your safe is rated to store media such as computer discs, memory chips and tapes.  While paper must reach 400 degrees in order to catch file, media can be damaged at as little as 125 degrees Fahrenheit.  Building a safe that protects media takes another level of design.  This safe will cost more, but will be worth it to protect your computer work.
• While stack on safes are very popular with the hunting crowd, you may be surprised to learn that they do manufacture and sell a fireproof safe that is slightly larger than a fire safe box, but functions in an identical way.  It looks like a more traditional safe.
• These safes are really meant to keep valuables and documents from being destroyed in a fire.  They have locking mechanisms, but are not meant to be high security safes.  If you have the room and the budget, a larger fire safe may be a better investment.
• Some fire safeboxes are designed to work almost like a small file holder.  The top opens up to allow folders to be dropped into the safe and protected against fire.  It can be a great place to keep all your important documents organized.
• If possible, see if your firesafe box can be mounted or tethered to something to make it more difficult to be stolen by a burglar.  Because these safes are so small and light, they could easily be carried out of your home where they would be opened later with ease.

Buying a fire safebox is a good investment, but be sure to do your homework before you buy on.