What’s the difference between a fire safe for paper and a fire safe for data?

Fire safes are the obvious choice to protect your goods from theft and fire. Fireproof safes go through rigorous testing to cope with the extreme heat in a fire. If you have valuable documents and data that may be valuable or priceless to you, then a fire safe is the right choice for you.

What’s the difference between a fire safe for paper and a fire safe for data?

Let’s start with the obvious differences.

Fire safes for paper are designed and tested to protect your paper valuables. This can include documents like bonds or marriage certificates or plans, blueprints, cash or photo albums.

Fire safes for data are designed and tested to protect your digital media and storage. Digital media and data can be anything from USB sticks and backup tapes to iPads and other tablets, cameras and CDs.

Fire safes for paper

Fire can affect your valuables in different ways. The extreme heat of a fire will ignite paper inside a safe and destroy it beyond recognition. Paper items like certificates and documents are often more valuable to the owner than a thief as the value is more often in the irreplaceable nature of them.

A fire safe for paper will give your paper documents up to 120 minutes protection in extreme heat, meaning that your priceless documents or cash are safe in the event of an office of home fire. If you need cash cover then there are also a range of combined fire protection safes, which offer both fire and theft security.

Related post: Combined Fire Protection Safes

Fire safes for data

Fire can have a detrimental effect on your digital valuables. Most digital products can only withstand 40-50 degree heat and a fire can generate up to 5 times that amount. Again, like the paper documents, not all your digital item will hold any value to a thief but they may be irreplaceable. This might include items like wedding photos on a disc, USB sticks with important data or backup tapes.

Fire safes for data can withstand a far higher heat and because of this they are the best choice if you want to protect both paper and data. Chubb and Phoenix both have a good range of 120 minute fire protection safes. If you need a simple home or office fire safe then then the Burton Firebrand or Firesec safe are ideal.

Fire safes and insurance

Some insurance companies will insist on a fire safe – especially if you look after important documents like marriage certificates for example. Don’t forget though that fire safes are designed to protect against heat not theft – so if you plan to store cash and valuables in them then make sure you choose a safe with combined fire protection.

We’re happy to advise you on the right safe for your needs. Just call our friendly team for help.

Safe shown: Sentry Big Bolts SFW123FSC