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.

Most insurance only covers a few guns. Hence the proliferation of gun safes.

Just purchased a 40 gun safe this morning and really didn’t even look at the fire rating. Info from a friend whose buddy went through a fire made me realize that they were going to be damaged in any good sized blaze. Main concern was theft deterrent for me. As others have said the main thing is that you’re all right. Dave

Sorry for your loss, I'm glad everyone is safe.

I remember him saying a door gasket was real important also

I think an insurance adjuster posted the same on the fire a few years ago.

sorry to hear about the loss of your house.

Sorry for your loss but glad you got your guns out in time and hopefully other keepsakes.
That’s disappointing that a Fort Knox faired that poorly. For the extra cost I would have expected it to do better than that. I have a Fort Knox that I bought used that seems sturdy 3/16” steel and 1/4” plate steel door but from the sounds of it it wouldn’t be much better than a budget safe in a complete loss house fire. Reasonable safes and an insurance policy is the way to go.

Mine was protected when our house burned. Seal broke scopes all ruined but guns safe, little Smokey



Also
RIVERDOG,,,, YOU LOST ALL YOUR GUNS IN TH3 FIRE!,, 😉 I know I did for governments sake

Wow....so sorry to hear.

Sad to hear about your house. Hope everything turns out ok without to much financial loss. Edk

Sorry you lost your house,.I know what you have gone through we lost our house in the high park fire in 2012. I too got all of our guns out of our safe. I cant remember what brand it was. We left a lot of ammo, hunting knives and a couple of scopes in the safe with the door shut but not locked. the safe was severly warped deformed. We used a sledge hammer and pry bar to open it. Melted lead brass, and aluminum were all found in the bottom. Our insurance adjuster said that unlike regular house fires wildfires generate much higher temperatures and destroy everything.

We rebuilt and had a good experience with our insurance company. The Cameron peak fire passed within 5 miles of our house...really stressful.

Again sorry for your lose.

Lefty

Sorry to hear of your loss but at least you saved the guns. In a catastrophic fire like that the time & temperature limits were way over what the design parameters of the safe were. Not every house fire burns a house to the ground. I've heard of fire rated safes that have worked well but that was where the fire department arrived in time to save most of the house, although the safe was in the same end of the house as the fire, it provided enough time to save the guns. They would have been in sad shape otherwise.

I’m glad you got them out!

This plus 10. An underground vault outside of the house would be money better spent than any containment in the house (moisture, heat, fire retardant chemicals etc) safes just sometimes protect from theft loss. Mb

So, door not closed (as you state).. That kinda negates any such fireproofing, I believe.. And there's several differences in safes re: fire proofing etc... Not sure which model you had and what the rating was at the time.. But I'm happy to hear you removed the firearms prior..

Door WAS closed. I closed the bolts but did not spin the combination dial to lock the lock. And actually the bolts did move after the fire...friend of mine opened the safe when we got there.