It could be quite costly for one to purchase a fireproof safe at home or business premises without checking to determine the capacity of the safes to withstand various degrees of fire exposure.
In fact, the safety standard could turn out to be quite a decisive issue when seeking compensation for items that were destroyed during a fire outbreak. Failure to observe this translates into loss of compensation if negligence is proved to be the cause of the records loss.
So, every time you purchase a safe, you should take time to check the UL fire ratings of the safe. This is very important because it determines whether the safe will withstand the magnitude or degree of a fire outbreak on the business premises or even at home.
This shouldn’t be a daunting task because the UL ratings are provided by the manufacturer of the particular safes once they are inspected and approved for quality.
Well, it might be quite helpful to understand what UL means especially if you want to purchase a fireproof safe for safe keeping. Basically, UL is a list which specifies the standard of protection that is offered by different types of safes when they are exposed to fire. This means that during production of these safes, tests are conducted to determine their capacity to withstand various degree of fire.
A typical test involves placing the safe on a heat furnace with temperatures which match the heat exposure of a real life fire outbreak or scenario.
Currently, there are 3 listings which are used by UL to assess the standard of all kinds of safe keeping equipment.
- UL-Class 350 rated files which are recommended for safe keeping of paper documents.
- Class 150 rated files for safe keeping media files in magnetic tapes.
- Class 125 which is recommended for keeping computer hard disks.
The UL Class 350-1 hour simply means that the fireproof safe has the capacity to maintain an internal temperature of 350° for at least 1 hour when it is exposed to fire or heat which averages 1700°. A safe with UL Class 350-2 hours means that the safe can maintain internal temperatures of 350° for 2 hours.
The other is UL Class 125 which can maintain an internal temperature of 125° for between 1-3 hours. These internal conditions apply to different items and the temperatures should correspond with those of specific items which should be stored at those temperatures.
Another important aspect of file storage is impact grading. It is evident that files can not only be damaged by fire outbreak, but also by disasters such as structural collapse resulting from an earthquake. This aspect applies to file cabinets and impact rated safes.
Thus, it follows that a UL firesafe should be able to withstand up to 1550 degrees of heat, and crash impact and further heat test for it to be classified as impact rated. The temperature should also be maintained at 350 degrees without significant damage to test papers during heating.
Take a look at more fire-safes.
