Every 83 seconds a residential fire occurs in the United States

Over 380,000 residential fires occur annually

	Residential fires account for $4.4 billion of property loss each year
	Source: National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA)

An assumption many people make is that they can compare home security safe fire ratings much like they compare the gas mileage ratings on cars. While there is one test method for estimating fuel economy, there is no single fire test or rating standard for home security safes. Safe manufacturers fire test methods, standards and facilities vary so widely that a direct comparison is meaningless. Here’s why:

Actual house fires get hot real fast—1200°F in ten minutes or less. Yet some manufacturers use fire tests where the heat builds to over 1200°F over a much longer time frame—well beyond the time it takes a typical house fire to reach 1200°F. The result is a longer fire protection time claim, but it provides an unrealistic expectation of actual fire resistance.