It never occurs to most entrepeneurs who work from home that their home business could be affected by a fire, but they are sadly mistaken. In 2001, there were more than 400,000 residential fires reported in the news in the United States alone – that’s an average of one property fire every 80 seconds and that’s not even including commercial fires.
A lot of beople are attracted to internet marketing business opportunities that allow them to make money online and work at home, but they are not aware of the risk that fire could pose to their livelihood. Regardless of whether you are into seo services, web design and programming or even web hosting, having a fireproof safe for your backup media will protect your business health and fitness even in the event of a fire. When you realise how fast a fire can travel, you’ll know that there’s no way you can save your data before you evacuate the building.
A fire in your home or business can be devastating, resulting in loss of valuable documents, business books, cash, computer equipment, software, data and even diamond jewellery. For this reason, no home or business should be without a sturdy, secure fireproof safe. Not only can it be used for the security of documents and valuables, a fireproof safe will also prove to be effective business or home insurance in the unfortunate event of a fire.
You can buy new fireproof safes in a number of brands and fire ratings and are constructed from a variety of materials. Two of the most common materials used in the construction of fire resistant safes include vermiculite and perlite. Another common material is insulite, which is essentially a combination of the two and is used in safes manufactured by the Schwab Corporation.
When the insulating material in the safes is heated, it gives off free water vapour which is funnelled into the safe to provide an insulating pressure seal. For this reason it is important that goods stored in the safe are not sensitive to moisture.
Unfortunately however a “fire proof” safe cannot be considered 100 percent fire proof. “Fire proof” tends to be a marketing term used in advertising but more correctly they should be considered “fire-resistant”, since at sufficiently high temperatures even the strongest stone will melt. But fire proof safes are generally considered effective enough to withstand the relatively lower temperatures of fires that start off in homes and offices and which can be restricted to a smaller and more contained area.
The key factor that you should look at in order to gauge the fire resistance of a safe is known as the fire rating. This indicates the length of time that a safe will be able to resist a particular intensity of heat without the goods inside being destroyed by heat. A higher fire rating is considered better since it is deemed to offer more protection for longer.
So how do you know which fire safe perfectly meets your requirements? This Checklist will help you decide.