Fire Safes, Fireproof Safes, Fire Resistant Safes - Everything You Need To Know

From personal paperwork and house deeds to business files, memory keys and hard drives, when you need to protect documents and data, due diligence and a good understanding of fire certification as well as burglary resistance certification is essential.

Most certified safes have a degree of light fire resistance by virtue of the materials used in their manufacture, invariably having a burglary resistant barrier material which also provides a degree of heat resistance. The most common example of this is being indicated when buying a safe is the German institute for standardisation mark DIN4102, however, this mark should not be confused with a certified fire resistance in any way similar to the European light fire standard EN15659 or the European data standard EN1047-1. Whereas EN15659 and EN1047-1 refer to furnace tests at temperatures ranging from 842°C to 1090°C for period ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours, DIN4102 should be viewed as a material fire retardant test only. So, if you are one of an increasing number of people who want to store house deeds or other important documentation or data, particularly if you are working from home, the legal proof of standard provided by EN15659 or EN1047-1 for the protection of documents or digital data from the types of temperatures that can result from an intense house fire may be a necessity.

Buyer beware

Unfortunately, misinformation on the fire resistance of safes and cabinets which can lead to disastrous consequences is still a common factor for safes marketed in both the UK and Ireland, with most safes it is claimed have a fire resistance, having no certified proof of standard whatsoever.

Unaccredited and highly misleading fire “certification” marks are commonplace, in some cases even accompanied by certificates which are no more than a "recommendation" of suitability from the manufacturer and often for temperatures below that of the average house fire.

To cite just one very common example of this, a well known UK manufacturer regularly issues certificates signed by the company managing director "confirming" popular series of their "fire safes" are suitable for the protection of paper records for 30 minutes at 500°C. While there is no reference to the type of test that ascertained the claimed level of fire resistance, considering the average wood fire burns between 600°C and 800°C and entry level furnace testing for safes and cabinets designed to protect paper documents for 30 minutes under European Standards starts at 842°C, one would have to wonder about the suitability of a unit with fire resistance to 500°C to protect documents from fire even if such a claim was to be taken at face value.

The importance of accredited European certification

When it comes to safes that have a proven resistance to fire, accredited European certification makes identifying the type of cover provided by a particular unit straightforward as it is a certification requirement that a stamped metal plate is displayed on the inside of the door of all such units which is clearly marked and easy to understand.

EU Parliament regulation 765/2008 created the system that provides the legal basis of accreditation for the certification of safes and cabinets to:

• European standard EN15659 the protection of paper documents from fire
• European standard EN1047-1 the protection of data from fire
• European standard EN1143-1, the burglary resistance certification for safes
• European standard EN14450, the burglary resistance certification for cabinets

The ultimate protection against misrepresentation and a legal proof of standard of burglary and fire resistance, accredited European certification is the most important factor in maintaining insurance cover long term, as well as being the basis for all insurance rate recommendations in Europe. When there is a need to ensure regulatory compliance, for the storage of important legal documents or data, anything less than accredited European certification and the legal proof of standard it provides can leave an organisation or individual vulnerable. European accredited certification for safes and strongrooms is backed by regular auditing, market surveillance and is verifiable, proof of standard for both insurance and litigation purposes.

If you consider that 70% of safes tested for burglary resistance by accredited European testing labs fail on the first attempt the practical implications of accepting unaccredited claims of burglary or fire resistance are obvious.

What accredited European fire resistance certification looks like

Accredited European Certification will always appear on a stamped metal certification plate, NEVER A STICKER. A common myth regarding the fire resistance of safes circulated to insurers and consumers alike is that there is some connection between the grade of a safe and its resistance to fire. This myth has become so pervasive it has not only been repeated in on-line articles, but far more surprisingly, via accredited insurance industry seminars. A safe, cabinet or strongroom that has been certified to protect paper documents (EN15659) or data (EN1047-1) from fire, will always have a stamped metal plate on the inside of its door displaying its accredited fire resistance certification separately from any burglary resistance certification it may have, while some units may be intended for fire resistance only.

Photo below shows a safe certified to the burglary resistance standard EN1143-1 Grade II by VdS, (top) and for light fire resistance to European Standard EN15659 by ECB-S (bottom), the two certification bodies with accreditation to ISO IEC17065 to certify safes to European standards you will most likely encounter on a genuine certification plates in Ireland.

Fire protection for paper EN15659

EN15659 is the “Light Fire Storage” certification standard (LFS). Units tested to this standard are designed to provide differing levels of protection, units marked LFS30P having been furnace tested at 842°C for 30 minutes and units marked LFS60P for 60 minutes at 945°C. The certification plate for light fire storage will appear separately to a burglary resistance certification that may appear on the unit. As this standard is intended for the protection of paper documents, humidity is not measured during testing.

Fire & impact protection for data EN1047-1

EN1047-1 is the data standard for safes and cabinets. S60P and S120P are standards for the protection of paper documents both having an internal temperature limit of 170°C during furnace testing at a temperature of 1090°C. Units marked S60D and S120D have to maintain an internal temperature limit of 70°C and a humidity limit of 85% during testing. Units marked S60DIS and S120DIS have to maintain an internal temperature limit of 52°C and a humidity limit of 85% during testing. Certification plates for this standard will appear separately to any burglary resistance certification that may appear on the unit

European fire standards for physical data & paper documents

The abbreviations in the table stand for:

• LFS - Light fire storage unit to EN15659
• S  - Data cabinet to EN1047-1
• DI - Diskette insert for installation into a data cabinet of protection class S60P and S120P
• C - Data container to EN1047-2
• R - Data room to EN1047-2
• 30 - Exposure to flames for 30 minutes
• 60 - Exposure to flames for 60 minutes
• 120 - Exposure to flames for 120 minutes
• P - Suited for heat sensitive paper documents with stress limits up to 170°C
• D - Suited for heat and humidity sensitive data media with stress limits up to 70°C and 85% air humidity
• DIS - Suited for heat and humidity sensitive data media with stress limits up to 52°C and 85% air humidity

A mark often mistaken for European fire certification

NT FIRE 017 is a conformity assessment of Nordtest. Originally founded in 1973 under the Nordic Council of Ministers the emphasis of Nordtest is to develop, promote Nordic test methods and pre-normative activity. NT FIRE 017 is NOT a European Standard.

Not being a European standard, NT FIRE 017 is not a legal proof of standard for litigation purposes in the European Union,but there are several other important differences in testing and application of the NT FIRE 017 mark that set it apart from European standards that consumers should also be aware of.

Limited scope of testing

The first important difference between cabinets and safes marked NT Fire 017 and those certified under European standards is NT Fire 017 may be applied to units of identical construction to a tested unit, provided that the external volume of the untested units are not less than half of, and not more than twice the volume of the tested unit. In other words, in a series of five sizes only one unit may have been tested, something impossible under the European testing regime. This is why, unlike NT fire 017, a series of five sizes of safes or cabinets certified to European standards will usually have differing fire certification times, as might be expected, due to differing sizes and volumes.

More favourable temperature measurement

There are also substantial differences between European standards and NT Fire 017 in the way temperature inside a tested unit is measured which to the casual observer may appear to produce a more favourable result for NT Fire 017. Everybody knows that if you heat a rectangular object that the internal corners of that object are likely going to heat more rapidly, and this is exactly where thermocouples are placed in European fire testing, however, in NT Fire testing thermocouples are placed in the centre of safe panels, an area that will likely heat last.

Humidity not measured

Particularly important to the preservation of digital data under European standards, there are strict parameters on permitted humidity levels inside a data safe or cabinet being tested, with relative humidity inside a tested safe or cabinet being measured both during testing and during a cooling phase after testing. NT Fire 017 doesn’t measure humidity at all during testing.

Undefined marking

As NT Fire 017 has no defined method of marking tested units it leaves a manufacturer or supplier free to mark products in a variety of "creative" manners. In the case of the mark above, a facsimile of a plate appearing on a safe from a UK supplier, NT FIRE 017 appears on a stamped metal plate that is strikingly similar to an accredited European certification plate for a safe, with the word "safe" in block capitals in the left hand corner. A consumer might be forgiven for thinking that the plate below is both certifying t

Warning regarding second-hand pre-2000 fire safes

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Certified Safes Ireland™ in-house advisor on keeping jewellery, watch collections, goods, cash, documents and data, safe, secure, yet readily accessible, is Alan Donohoe Redd.

Alan Donohoe Redd is a member of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) Working Group responsible for writing European Standards for safes, strongrooms (vaults), secure cabinets and physical data protection for the European Union and a member of the U.S. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Standards Technical Panel TC72 covering standards for fire resistance of record protection devices. Alan is also a registered NATO supplier and a longstanding member of the European Security Systems Association. Alan has a vast range of experience spanning almost 40 years encompassing installation of safes, strongrooms, physical data protection, firearms security, secure storage of pharmaceuticals as well as access control, doors and equipment used for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) in government, military and I.T. sectors.

An expert on standards and fraud issues related to secure storage in Europe, the UK and the use of asbestos in European safe and cabinet manufacturing, Alan has had articles related to these subjects published by The Law Society Gazette and Irish Broker Magazine, has forced retractions of multiple false claims related to secure storage offerings to the public and has been pivotal in having misleading standards and practices recognised and withdrawn in Ireland, the UK and at a European level.

Alan's seminars on safes, strongrooms and high net worth secure storage have been part of Continuing Professional Development for underwriters and insurers having been awarded CPD points by the Insurance Institute of Ireland and the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK).

 Alan's expertise has been relied on by:

N.A.T.O. Europe, The U.S. Air Force (Europe), The National Treasury Management Agency (Ireland), The Department Of Communications (NCSC Cyber Security) (Ireland), The Revenue Commissioners, The Department of Foreign Affairs, Electricity Supply Board (Cyber Security) (Ireland), The Danish Defence Forces (Afghanistan), PayPal (Worldwide), Grant Thornton, The Insurance Institute of Ireland, The Royal College Of Surgeons, An Garda Síochána (Irish police service), BFC Bank, Interxion Data Centres, Isle of Man Gold Bullion, Brown Thomas, Bvlgari, Boodles, Druids Glen, The Shelbourne Hotel, and many others ....