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A fire resistant safe is a great place to store items of value, and important documents, too. From birth certificates and tax records to the deeds to your home, should you be unfortunate enough to experience a house fire, these essential documents could easily go up in flames.  

The risk of fire when it comes to protecting documents

While a house fire will more than likely be extinguished before it has a chance to destroy your entire home, it does depend upon response times in your locality and the materials both that your house is made from, and your furniture and any other items inside. A significant blaze that has been left to rage uncontrolled for many minutes, could easily consume much of the contents of you home, and will certainly leave reduced to ash, any important documents not stored in a fire resistant safe.

If you live in an area prone to wildfires, should the flames reach your home, they are far more likely to do a lot more damage, and will often burn until its burnt itself out, leaving destruction – and in some cases, even death – in its wake.

Essentially, the longer and hotter the burn, the better fire resistant safe you need.

What safe has the highest fire rating?

It’s important to understand that fire ratings aren’t regulated, and that in many cases, they are assigned by the manufacturers themselves. In some instances, this happens without any tests even being carried out, while more reputable manufacturers will conduct their own tests.

It’s also important to recognize that no safe is ever completely fireproof, they instead, offer protection from fire damage for a certain period of time; the longer the protection, the better, naturally.

What tax documents should you store in a fire resistant safe?

With the IRS having 3 years in which to audit a tax return (and an unlimited time in which to do so if they have reason to believe you’ve never filed a tax return), it pays to keep proof of your filed tax return, indefinitely.

Proof of having filed your tax return may be found in the following documents:

• A registered or certified receipt
• An email acknowledging your return was accepted.

What personal documents should you store in a fire resistant safe?

Anything that shows proof of who you are and who you say you are, should always be stored securely in a fire resistant safe, as were they to be destroyed, you’ll struggle to open a bank account or a line of credit, among others. Some examples of these may be:

• Social Security Card
• Birth Certificate
• Passport
• Your most recently expired Driver’s License

Are there any other documents worth protecting?

You should consider storing any of the following documents inside a fire resistant safe:

• Credit card account information
• Essential passwords
• Stocks
• Property deeds
• Will and testament

Fire resistant safes give you the peace of mind that all of your most important documents are protected, and for anyone living in an area of the country prone to wildfires, should invest in one at the earliest.