Do Fire Safe Safes Protect against Wildfires?

[Coyotefurharvester]

Not even the liberal California politicians want guns out of safes found after wildfires.

 

[ckaberna]

Yes. Once you place them in an underground concrete bunker.

Surrounded by a high flow sprinkler system......$$$

 

[shoobe01]

It sounds like the question to ask, is, does anyone know of a stand alone gun safe where the contents survived a catastrophic house fire?

Define "Survived."

Know (have seen results of) what came out of gun safes after a fire. Even only fairly bad fires generally, as a guideline, means:

• Optics are just gone. Only seen I think one that survived, and it was one of those Trijicon reflex sights.
• Slings, buttcuffs, holsters, etc. all gone. Nylon and leather are ruined.
• All springs need to be replaced
• All blueing and many other finishes ruined. Do NOT action the guns (the smith will soak them first); the heat drove out 100% of the oil so everything is bone dry even if no other issues.
• Wood is likely ruined. Even if not scorched, it gets too dry, cracks. Even if not visibly, it'll likely break under recoil shortly after you restore it otherwise.
• Anything iron or brass framed is no longer a functional gun
• All steel receivers (etc) need to be hardness checked. 50/50 if they got soft, are ruined.

Have some friends with guns restored after a fire. Takes a while, and a lot of money.

One way to assure that everything is destroyed is to rush in too fast. Open it hot and it'll flash over, everything catches on fire. FD will usually help make sure the safe cools down, soak it for a few hours if they are not otherwise occupied. Usually, you want to wait a day or two to open it.

Cops will also often hang out to make sure no one tries to steal the guns. FD will tell them about it, but double check so you know.

 

[Rick300]

There are several pictures of the 2017 California wildfires where the only things left standing were fireplaces and gun safes. I know "a guy" who was called in from out of state to retrieve some "off roster" guns from his safe right after they were allowed back in. It was just a pile of scrap metal - nothing survived.