We open a fireproof gun safe after a house fire - See what’s inside!

You can tell these guys do not handle guns on the daily or the weekly. Especially love how the guy picks up the rifle with finger in the trigger without knowing if a round was chambered. Luckily no one was hurt in the filming of this episode of the Three Stooges!!!

Can't wait until they video my gun safe recovery from lake Michigan. I lost everything during a boating accident. 😞

Many years ago I was at a locksmith shop talking with a locksmith, when a person walked in off the street with a melted glob of a Sentry safe that you can buy at Home Depot. His house had just burnt down that weekend and he wanted the locksmith to open it up to see if some important papers were ok. I watched to locksmith get it open very quickly, and I saw that his important papers were still in perfect shape. Speaks well for little fire safes. I was impressed.

My 2 cents. I have a similar safe to this one. I bought it for fire protection. It is strongly bolted to a concrete wall, the foundation of the fireplace and adjacent to a wall I built withe two hidden surprises that would require a lot to work around. On the last side is the furnace that would be tough to work around. When I bought it I made sure there was concrete 1/2 “ inner liner on all surfaces. As far as whether the guns in this video safe can be made service let, I feel a gunsmith can get most of them working again. The temperature in the safe never got to 460 degrees,. That is the temperature paper products ignite. Also the fact that the bag the pistol didn’t melt (polyester and nylon has a really low melting point). Finally, ammo didn’t cook off which it would at way less than 1200 degrees. The loose rounds as mentioned in some of the previous comments were correct. Probably hand-loaded with lord only know what. As far as the salvage crew, very sloppy. To properly cut the safe open you cut a shallow depth cut as you really don’t know the thickness of the metal nor the hardness make a series of shallow cuts until you break through. You aren’t in a hurry so take your time. They lucked out when they hit non-hardened steel or worse, two layer of steel separated by concrete. Regarding the extraction of the guns I cringed when they didn’t clear the guns first using their finger. Several of the guns had carbon on the chamber face that could easily hid a cartridge in the chamber. And has been pointed out, don’t lay the directly on the concrete floor. Put them on a movers quilt to keep the guns safe and pointing away from everyone ( they walked in front of the barrel at least once). Finally don’t handle the ammo like it’s normal. Powder exposed to high heat can become unstable as can the primers. Treat them like they could could cook off any minute. Put them in a steel ammo box and dispose of them. Sorry for the length of this comment. I got seriously “triggered” by their recklessness.

Looks to me like two guys not familiar with tools or guns being filmed by another guy not familiar with cameras.

I've had to deal with insurance claims on firearms that were stored in safes. Learned many things along the way, like the fact that the temperature is hottest at the top of safes 90% of the time. The cheaper safes that use soft, open cell foam padding in the interior, vaporizes and turns into a gooey corrosive gas that coats stocks and metal, attacking the metal far worse than wood leaving uneven, deeply pitted areas on blued surfaces (stainless guns not as badly affected). If the guns are in the lower part of the safe, surprisingly most of the factory heat treatment & springs were found to be still in spec.. Some rifle barrels, closer to the muzzle end may become compromised (caution on the heat treated Stainless barrels - these may blow apart like a banana peel if high powered rounds are fired - if the barrel anneals in a fire - SS .22 long rifle barrels not so much of a concern). Sometimes the rubberized foam backing from interior carpeting will also create this corrosive goo, but to a lesser degree. I contacted several of the manufacturers like Fort Knox, Homak, Liberty, etc. to see if they were willing to offer custom build interiors with Nomex lining and additional temperature resistance features, but was disappointed that they were not willing to listen to me. Basically your so called fire rated safes are considered so because the mfg will use a special gasket that lines the door that in the event of a fire will swell and seal the door to some degree to help prevent water from the firefighters hose from getting in.... however, as you seen in this video, there are many weak areas that lifted in the rear of the safe and a corner that cracked which allowed the water vapor inside and mix with the corrosive gasses created by the carpet backing. Sorry for writing a book, but I thought I'd share what I thought to be important info to help others protect their valuable firearms.

In my experience, we had a house fire that was a total loss. All the rifles/shotguns in the safe were beyond repair. The pistols in a night stand and a .410 shotgun in the closet all survived with only minimal cosmetic damage. Most of the time it's about where they are in regards to the fire and how long they were exposed.

The insulation, concrete, drywall, what ever is employed has water content. As the safe gets hot, water vapor is released. The guns and various other metals will rust in the humidity and heat whether water is introduced from outside or not.

Half a million views. Imagine what this video could have done if it wasn't a sideways vertical video. How do you even manage that?

I've dealt with this issue a number of times while at Weatherby Inc. The Items in the safe don't necessarily "Burn" because of a lack of oxygen, but they do "Roast" as in like an oven. The rust is caused by the super heating which destroys the finish followed then cooling which causes condensation on the metal surfaces. Serviceability of all the firearms must be done by a qualified Gunsmith with access to at minimum a Rockwell hardness testing rig and a detailed listing of the items factory hardness's limits for it's parts. The super-heating effect will take the temper out of critical area's even though plastic and wood on the guns seems okay. Any gun should be sent to it's respective factory service center for evaluation only after contacting that centers service agent.

Great Video. Was just here after hearing a testimony of a Lahaina survivor and was wondering what happens to weapons in a gun safe after a fire. The only thing left in his safe was ash and barrels. Your video answered my questions.

Had a fire and a safe with about 10 firearms in it, house burned. The house was built about 100 years prior to the fire, made from heart pine, burned basically to the ground. Very hot fire for over an hour. I called Cannon safe, the brand I had about 48 hours after, was told to get the firearms out as soon as possible, the carbon steel firearms were very rusty but truly not damaged otherwise. I had one scope that had sucked moisture in when it cooled and a few plastic items in the top of the safe that were damaged from the heat, but glad I had the safe. Main point from me is get your firearms out as quickly as you can and clean and oil them.

Worked closely with a gunsmith for 10 years. Seen this situation quite a few times. The rust is caused by an acid given off in the smoke not from water. If at all possible you need to get your firearms to someone who can completely disassemble and thoroughly clean as soon after a fire as safely possible.

"That guns in perfect shape" - immediately drops and scratches gun

Hey everyone including camera’s operator! Thank You! Just so you know I “really enjoy your video” I received exactly what I was hoping for while watching this video! As far as the use of the saw I found it to be normal due to the stresses the light metal took during the fire! The interior of safe was also what I expected but wasn’t sure about! To me it was really sad that a person had to give up the safe for legal reasons??? I’m not sure what that could be and was hoping that would have been more explained!!! Now the best part of this video was thrown into the comments section! It has many good points if you avoid the negative and political statements! Myself “I” am very political but I didn’t come to this video to make my political viewpoints known!!! I came to see what happens to a safe if in a fire…. That’s it! Nothing more! So what “I” noticed without reading ALL of the comments…. Yet! I noticed, no fire bricks nor drywall materials??? Even cheap Gun-safes who have/state a fire ratings have something to deflect the temperature. Yet I didn’t see anything other than the white material that looked like a fiber mat which it was mentioned it could be a concrete liners! As you look through from the backside of the safe towards the door of the safe you will see heavy locking pins… which usually means it’s a better safe. But the lack of more fire proofing perhaps it’s not as good as being described (1200 degrees) fire proofing! So with this knowledge presented in this video I now know to elevate my gun safe by two and half feet off my basement floor and locate the safe near a floor drain with a debris guard on it! Also I will have to install my gun safe within a metal cabinet to give my gun safe air space from the direct heat of a fire This will act as a shield against the fire direct contact and could provide the best outcome to keep my guns safe inside of the safe because the metal cabinet will act like a shield and mostly likely take most of the damaging blows of the fire! Also not noted was to keeping flammable materials out of safe to avoid spontaneous combustion! Bullets and cardboard wrappers even your paperwork for gun permits or bills of sales should not be in there find another place for fire proofing them! Perhaps a smaller safe high off basement floor! Did anyone notice the cook off rounds??? Probably shouldn’t have loaded guns in your safe in case of a fire… although I didn’t see where and fired in any gun but it’s something to think about!

I've read many times that most gun safes only have thick doors and can be sawed through. I had no idea that it would be this easy with the right saw. That saw could cut through some armored vehicles with less than 1" steel.

This person should never be allowed to use a camera again.

I enjoyed turning my head for almost 20 minutes

Safes are designed to be inset, not free-standing. The door is robust because that is the only side meant to face attack. The sides, back, and top are usually an inner and outer layer of mild steel with what is basically sheetrock sandwiched between them. That is intended as insulation, only. The bottom of the safe is most likely a single layer of mild steel. After my 23 year career in fire suppression, I can tell you that safes generally preserve what is inside from fire well enough to allow an insurance settlement that accurately accounts for those items. Documents and cash in a safe should be in sealed plastic bags, and stored at floor level, where it is the coolest.

I appreciate this video. I always thought the items in the safe would be more protected.