The Town Crier recently ran a news item that noted, “Four recent residential burglaries in the city of Los Altos have added to a long string of daytime burglaries going back to November.”
“In the burglaries, jewelry and silverware were taken,” said Los Altos police Sgt. Bob Lacey.
If the homes broken into had had a safe, would it have saved some of the valuables? For what it’s worth, safe companies have added safes to the list of home appliances.
When buying a safe, the first thing to determine is what level of fire and burglary protection you need.
A good place to start is asking your insurance company what safe ratings they require to provide coverage.
Most low-end safes come with old-fashioned combination locks or key locks. Costing less than $100, these are not particularly effective against a fire or an experienced burglar.
Safes offer varying degrees of fire and burglar resistance. Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) tests and labels safes on their level of burglar and heat resistance, using grinding wheels, drills, high-pressure devices, 1,700 F furnaces (the average house fire is 1,500 F) and other tools.
To indicate the level of burglar resistance, UL gives a TL rating for “tool resistance” and a TR rating for “torch resistance.” The “TL” or “TR” is usually followed by a number that indicates in minutes how long the safe can withstand attack.
Some of the commonly found ratings are TL15 (withstands a 15-minute attack with tools), TL30 (withstands a 30-minute attack with tools), TRTL30 (withstands a 30-minute attack with a cutting torch and tools).
UL also tests safes to see how secure they are in a fire and labels them accordingly. For instance, a rating of “UL Class 350-Four Hour” indicates that in a 1,700 F fire the interior of the safe will remain at 350 F for four hours (paper ignites at 425 F).
You may also want to see how a safe will fare if it is dropped. In a fire, the safe may fall through the floor, break open and spill the contents you’re trying to save.
According to the order desk at Security Safe in Hayward, they have safes that come in designer colors and different sizes and can fit in various places, including the closet, underneath the electronic equipment in the media room, in the kitchen and in the laundry room.
Safes come in different sizes and weights.
Since safes are a long-term investment, it is important to get a sense of what you need to protect. Keep in mind a large, heavy safe does not necessarily mean greater security. It cannot be removed easily by a burglar, but it cannot be removed by you in case of a fire either.
Media safes are designed to protect disks and audio/visual equipment from fire. These safes have special requirements, since the objects they are designed to protect are more fragile than paper, and are thus more expensive.
