Every 83 seconds a residential fire occurs in the United States
Over
380,000 residential fires occur annually
Residential
fires account for $4.4 billion of property loss each year
Source: National Fire Protection Agency
(NFPA)
An assumption many people
make is that they can compare home security safe fire ratings much like they
compare the gas mileage ratings on cars. While there is one test method for
estimating fuel economy, there is no single fire test or rating standard for
home security safes. Safe manufacturers fire test methods, standards and facilities
vary so widely that a direct comparison is meaningless. Here’s why:
Actual
house fires get hot real fast—1200°F in ten minutes or less.
Yet some manufacturers use fire tests where the heat builds to over 1200°F
over a much longer time frame—well beyond the time it takes a typical
house fire to reach 1200°F. The result is a longer fire protection time claim,
but it provides an unrealistic expectation of actual fire resistance.
