Gun "Safe" PLUS House Fire

[ILikeLead]

Gentlemen,
Nope it hasn't happened yet, but just planning ahead. I see most posts here about "safes" discuss theft and breaking into a safe. I think I read somewhere that FIRE presents more of a risk to someones gun collection than THEFT.

I bought a (hopefully sufficient) Fire Rated Safe and placed it in the basement of the House. It has heat seals to seal out smoke and water from the fireman's hose. The basement is walkout type and the safe is on 2 inch platform to allow for that much standing water either from a broken pipe or Fireman hose.

I would have liked to have this safe upstairs, but in a fire it would likely fall through the floor and I wouldn't want that to happen with my collection inside.

HAS anyone here had any experience with rural house fires(read: complete burn due to slow response time) and gun safes??? HAVE I missed anything in my planning??? Any ideas for improvement???

Thank You.

 

[4thPointOfContact]

I have read, but couldn't say where it was.... that there is a shortcoming to having the gun safe in the basement. If there is a house fire, the burning material will (of course) fall to the basement and will retain heat for many hours after the rest of the house is gone. The time is enough to defeat almost any safe's heat resistance rating.


One defense to that would be to construct a stand-off, a non-flammable material enclosing and providing air space around the safe. It could be as easy as a few cinder blocks with a roof. (Just pondering there )

 

[Guns and more]

A gun safe is not designed to be a fire safe. Way better than nothing but not "Fire Proof".
Totally protecting your gun collection from fire would require a really, really expensive safe.
If it's important papers you want to save, put a smaller fireproof container inside your safe.