Many Americans own a safe of one kind or another. Most assume that if it looks like a safe and is as heavy as a safe should be, then virtually all of them do the same task. However, that is not quite true as safes have a variety of different quality levels that make cheaper safes survive very differently in adverse situations. While they may look the same, it is very important that you spend the extra cash on a fire-rated safe. Here are a few reasons why this feature is so important when fires can be so rare in modern homes.

Storage Of Weapons

If you keep any kind of firearms locked away in your safe, whether it be a pistol or a rifle, then you are opening yourself up to a whole new problem should the safe be affected by the fire. Ammunition is, after all, explosive and the extreme heat from a fire will set off these rounds. The last thing you want when trying to put out a blaze or escape one is to have random bullets ricocheting around you with no rhyme or reason. A fire-rated safe gives you a lot more time to escape and is much harder for the flames to penetrate.

Better Build Quality

There are few measures to how strong and secure a safe is from the outside, which is why so many people just assume safes are all the same. A fire-rated safe that has been tested and approved demonstrates at the very least a stronger insulation and thicker shell that will be much better in the event of a forced entry attack than a regular safe that is roughly the same size. The stronger construction alone should provide a peace of mind that is hard to compete with and is one of the few ways to judge the character of a safe.

Documents And Money

A lot of people store very valuable documents and quite a substantial amount of cash in their safe, which is why you want to give yourself as much time as possible to put any flames out before the safe gives way. Fire-rated safes give you that additional time period which very well might be the difference between you losing your birth certificate, passport, family photos, and a sizeable chunk of change, and having it all left virtually untouched. If you want a safe to do its job and protect your valuables then you can't just think about the threat of thieves, you need to think of environmental dangers, too.