Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tested my gun safe in a real fire

As you may know we lost our house in the East Troublesome fire. The authorities let us in today to have a look. The devastation is hard to describe. The gun safe, Fort Knox brand was in the garage on concrete slab. Fortunately I had plenty of time to evacuate and we took every last gun out of the safe and out of other places in the house. The safe is still standing but warped and bent. The house came down around it. When I left I did not lock it but did close the door. The door still opens and closes But the bolts don’t move. The fire resistant stuff on the inside is all gone, and there is no evidence that the wood/carpet gun rack and shelves ever existed. This must have been a hell of a hot fire, judging not only by the safe but other melted and destroyed stuff in the house. I guess the moral of the story is that if you get any time to evacuate, get the guns out of the safe.

Wow - glad you got it emptied out.

That's horrible.

Sorry about your loss RD, but glad you got the guns. And fly rods.

Dammit man, glad you got yer guns out. It hurt me to hear of your loss of a long time accumulation of good tools, but thinking the guns are another subject.


A lot to learn of fire proof & such. Nothing trusted. You rock for reporting results. Thank you, sorry for your loss. HANG IN THERE!

Thanks for your post, and glad you had time to save your guns, but can you give us some details on your Ft. Knox safe, ie. What were the industry standards on fire-proof protection on your safe. Thanks

Sorry to hear of all you lost!

I think those fire rated gun safes are rated for certain amounts of time under certain temperature conditions.

If the house just burns down around any gun safe, no matter the fire rating, you'll probably have nothing worth anything inside afterwards.

I got this Fort Knox safe From Bill Seaworth in Fort Collins in about 1994 and I do not know the standards back then. I do remember ordering the fire resistant liner which seems like some kind of masonry material. I remember a lot of grunting and swearing when the safe was delivered and similar grunting and swearing when we moved. The walls are 3/16” steel.

Temp and time ratings are what ya pay for.

Putting em to the test is a throw the dice thing it seems.
Lots of variables with em.
4 or 5 yrs ago someone posted up pics of a buncha guns in safes.
Pretty roasted.
Think it was a member from Arkansas IIRC and a fairly new constructed home.

Brian Pearce did an article a few years ago about the aftermath of a fire at a neighbors. Quick action is required to save guns that have been in a safe during a fire. The insulation generates a lot of moisture doing its job, and if the guns aren’t taken down and cleaned very quickly, rust will get them. Even with the best care, the guns in his article still suffered somewhat.

I had no idea until I read that.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your home. Had a friend lose his home to a fire a few years back. He lost three safes full of guns. Just heart breaking to see the condition of those guns when the safes were opened.

I haven't heard a single report of a gun safe protecting the firearms within in a fire, regardless of the rating.
Gun safes are for security, the fire protection is nothing but a sales pitch.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the gist of it.

I think fire ratings on most safes are pretty useless as far as house fires go. I keep all my deeds and titles in another fire rated box inside the safe. I don’t know that would even protect them.
Price of mind against low IQ thieves is the biggest return I would expect from any non commercial safe.

Yep. Not sure I would buy another safe as we live in a low risk place as far as thieves and robbers go.

Sorry for your loss.

That hurt and pain will take some time to heal.

Yep, they are rated against an industry standard based on x temp at x period of time. I bet what ever the standard is it doesn’t even come close to a house fire.

“Fireproofing” of a gun safe is just adding gypsum panel to the inside of the safe..... in the Midwest, the best fireproof safe was one the was on the ground floor when it collapsed and fell into the basement where all the water is....

Things can be replaced, lives cannot, glad you are safe and kept the guns.... if you lost your firearms, all you would need to do is buy a 6.5 Creedmoor and that’s all you would need....;-)

That is beyond the Suck. Glad you are safe though.

Glad you and your family are safe. The rest of it is replaceable, hopefully your insurance is good.