fire proof safe

[josh_560]

most fire safe boxes or at least the ones i know of will protect paper from burning, but negatives? any ideas comments?-J

[Ed Hoo]

I would think that paper ignites at much higher temperature than negatives bulge. I would not make any assumptions for negative storage unless the specs are based on temperature instead of something actually burning.

[Michael S. Briggs]

To have a high probabilty of protecting negatives in a fire, you need what is called a media safe. Most fire safes are designed to protect paper from charring or igniting. The contents will get to temperatures too high for film or computer storage media. The safes with better protection are therefore called media safes. The Sentry brand fire safes (file cabinets) which are commonly sold in office supply stores are specifically stated to be unsuitable for negatives. You can find information about the Sentry products at http://www.sentrysafe.com/. For other sources/brands, search the internet for "media safes".

[Darron Spohn]

You might find this thread on photo.net illuminating. A professional firefighter responded to s imilar question and said he has found that fireproof safes act as overns - the contents may not be destroyed but they get damaged.