House fire and gun safes.

Trappernewt

Trappernewt

Well-Known Member
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Joined
Jun 4, 2016
Messages
311
Location
West Virginia
Spending a lot of time here over the last 24 hours when not consoling my wife and kids. It helps occupy my mind and not think about the negatives.
My family and I lost everything we own in a house fire Friday. Thankfully everyone made it out safely.
I had multiple (5) large gun safes all with 80+ minute ratings. We were able to open one today (a browning) and everything inside is a total loss. Some custom rifles I bought from members here were lost in that safe. So more than likely all the rest of my firearms are lost as well.
Does anyone know of a better system if I can ever recover a fraction of what I had accumulated?
 
So sorry to hear of your losses but glad that you and your family are ok. Hopefully you have good enough insurance to at least lesson the blow. Unfortunatley 99% of so called gun safes are little more than overweight storage containers. There are a few out there but stupid expensive. If it's not actual bank vault rated it's probably not gonna save much when you need it most. Again, sorry for the loss.
 
A good system, but not practical in many parts of our country is a walk in concrete room, totally separate from the home …..except an access from the basement. Obviously, the entrance would have to be very well insulated to provide high temperature protection!

I know of several such gun vaults…..I wish that I had one. Would have been very easy and relatively inexpensive when building our basement! memtb
 
So sorry to hear about the loss brother, the important thing is that you and your family made it out safely, thank God! The rest can be replaced…
based on my experience, and those close to me in the fire services, I was always told the fire safes haven't worked very well. Every fire scene that I have ever been to, with a safe involved, the contents were basically lost. It seems like with any significant amount of heat and then add water to the out side of the safe and it just destroys the firearms inside.
Again so sorry, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family….
 
Sorry to hear about your home and possessions. The only thing that comes to mind is to put the safe on the lowest level. Fires burn up, not down. I put my Browning safe in the finished side of the basement. It sits on a couple of 4x4s just in case there is a domestic water leak. I have a full French drain system (including backup sumps and pumps) in place that should handle any level of water intrusion, but I'd rather play it safe.
 
My safes are the National Safe by Liberty Magnum. I use them for the fire protection primarily.

Made in the USA

🔥 2.5 Hours at 1200º F
🛡️ Level 8 Security
🔒 18 Locking Bars
⚖️ 1,585 lbs.
↔️ *Ext. Dim. (H x W x D) 72.5" x 42.25" x 27.75"
 
I hope every thing works out for you and your family....

Close to 30 years ago it happened to me....a fire in a house with no basement....I was very lucky Smoke Detectors and the Fire Department was down the block and the fire plug was next door...the fire was under control very fast....my loss would have been higher for every minute longer it would have taken to get the fire under control.....smoke detectors are what saved my life because the fire was at 2:00 am and I was sleeping....I got out with a coat in my PJ's and a pair of boots in 10" of snow....
All clothes anything having to do with cooking all food was a loss....basically everything was a loss except a gun safe in a room far away from the fire with a fire stop door....
It was a long and hard fought legal battle with the insurance company....I would not wish it to happen to anybody....
It would be a very good time for everyone to check smoke alarms have a plan to evacuate your house in case of a fire....
 
So sorry to hear about your loss. Glad to hear everyone escaped safely. Fire scares the crap out of me. A couple years back I saw a youtube video where a guy had a fire and lost every gun in his safe except for those wrapped in gun sock called Sack Ups. Don't know if it was real or not but I have them on all my guns. Helps to reduce safe dings also.

Please let us know if we can help.
 
Trappernewt said:
Spending a lot of time here over the last 24 hours when not consoling my wife and kids. It helps occupy my mind and not think about the negatives.
My family and I lost everything we own in a house fire Friday. Thankfully everyone made it out safely.
I had multiple (5) large gun safes all with 80+ minute ratings. We were able to open one today (a browning) and everything inside is a total loss. Some custom rifles I bought from members here were lost in that safe. So more than likely all the rest of my firearms are lost as well.
Does anyone know of a better system if I can ever recover a fraction of what I had accumulated?
Click to expand...
Dang, sorry to hear you had a fire. Been there, done that in 1989. Wiped out most of what we owned . We had a Sentry fire safe with documents in it and it was cut open with most everything surviving. The guns weren't a total loss, but a Colt 38 we had got hot enough to fire crack the nickel and most of the others had water issues and needed a heck of a scrubbing... I personally lost everything I owned.
As to safes, the longer and higher the fire rating, the better. 1 hour at 1200 isn't really enough, especially if you are rural. I think my safe is 90 minutes at 1200, and I want to buy 1500 or better with something better time wise next time... They get spendy in a hurry though.
 

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