GunSafe after Texas wildfire

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EmbarkChief

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I thought I would share a picture with y'all from our neightbors house in Bastrop, Texas. As you may have seen in the news we have experienced a huge fire in our area in the last few days. The following two pictures show our neightbors house (or what's left of it) and his gun safe. I'm not sure what model it is/was.

PhotoSep06133325.jpg

PhotoSep06133300.jpg

As you can see his house was a total loss. When he gets around to opening it I'll try and give you an update. We were very fortunate, the fire burned all around our property but left us unscathed.
 
Its just a weekend place for us, but no we did not thankfully. My poor neighbor, last Thursday he was gored by one of his cows in the thigh, his son got married Saturday, his house AND his fathers house burned down Sunday. That's one hell of a week in anyones book. We could only access the area by boat, all the roads were closed. For every one house standing I saw 7 or 8 burned to the ground. Here is a pic of some antique booze bottles he had in his garage.

PhotoSep06132743.jpg
 
Wow. One of my worst fears...years of collecting and meticulous purchases destroyed like that. As long as everyone is safe and all....but those pics hurt.
 
I would like to see photos, or at least hear an update on the condition of the contents.

I have opened a handfull of safes in similar condition, and the contents didn't fare so well.
 
Tell your neighbor to not let his insurance company cheat him... more than likely that metal garage must be torn down due to the heat annealing the structural elements.

It's a darned shame for your friend and all others who lost their homes.

I've been worrying about having a fire and all the ammo I have in my trailer. I need to build a tough cinderblock out building (maybe double-thick walls) with a strong metal roof.
 
Over the weekend I was hog hunting at a friends ranch near Columbus Texas and the wind was truely fierce on Sunday.
When I found out about the Bastrop fire which is fairly close to Columbus it made me really think.
And due to the fact that so many Texans hunt and own guns dont be surprised at all to see many more gun safes in that condition.
It looks like a Browning gun safe too me because of the shape of the hinges.
It will be interesting to see the contents later.
But dont expect much.

Edit to add...If it is a Browning it's most likely one of the imports from China as the better Brownings from Medallion up to the Platinum,generally have the combo lock more to the left of the door.
 
The funky handles remind me of the older Fort Knox safes, but most of them had internal hinges. External hinges were available, but only as an option.

It could be an import, but it looks like it was painted a beige color, possibly even gloss. I don't think I've ever seen an import that color.
 
I wish we could donate a few inches of all this rain in Northern VA. Remnants of Tropical Storm Lee are far worse than Irene was, and which was followed by 5-6 days of delightful weather. Have not seen the sun in 5 days and another 2-3 to go.
 
Batty67,

Part of what kept this fire from spreading through our place is the grass is almost non-existent. What is there is only an 1" high, kind of hard to burn dirt I guess.
 
I also would love to hear how the contents fared. Have been looking into these things for a while. Plus I'm just nosy ;)
 
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Ramman,not knowing what kind of gun safe it is and how much and what type of insulation was in it is the key here.
Most likely in that severe a burn down it's not likely his guns have survived.
Perhaps his papers are fine especially if the owner put them in a UL rated fire box such as a Sentry and placed that into the safe.
But then again I have watched the Youtube video of the guy that owned a Liberty Lincoln 25 that had a lot of contents placed in it as one of those vicious California fire storms came through his area and even though the house was a total burn down the contents survived.
So who knows??
 
The area is still closed off with no road access. I'll post an update when we get around to opening it.
 
Unbelievable. Thanks so much for sharing the pics, EC.

I have friends in Bastrop, myself, who were very lucky.

Please do follow up with us on the contents of the safe.

If they fared well, that pic of the house reduced to rubble around it could be a real-world advertisement for the company who made it.
 
Very sad thing to see, We need rain something fierce, with over 3.5 MILLION acres burned so far you would think we would have more resources to throw at these fires. Thanks for the safe pics and updates, wish you and your neighbor all the best
 
A coworker today told me there's a wildfire just a couple miles from her home. They're popping up everywhere around here. She's just a few miles north of me.
 
The Bastrop Co fire was worse than the Possum Kingdom fire, despite being half the size. Current tally is 1500 buildings destroyed.
Bunches of small--40-60 acre--fires down in Waller Co.
Saw a TP&W blurb that gave the current fire total, state-wide as 450.

Rain would be more than nice. But, the winds coming in with this next dry-line could be as bad.
 
This just confirms my decision to avoid buying a safe because it's not likely to help in a fire. Also, it'll only slow down thieves. I'm buying some sealed 12"x12"x48" steel USGI boxes hiding them behind a fake wall. Out of sight... of of mind.

ETA: That is until I can afford to build a cinder block outbuilding.
 
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Pretty discouraging!

I noticed that there were fires outside of San Antonio when we drove over on 10 from Houston this weekend. Given the heat and the dry this is not over yet for Texas.
 
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