In the last few major house fires I was in, the Fridge melted, leaving a lump of machinery and molten charred gloop.

Well I happened to build "fire safes" for 9 years,and the last 17 years my job has been that of firefighter . SO.... yes they work, look for the ones with a UL label. There are differant levels of ratings also .

As said they are for papers and such. The UL label ratings will tell you the inside temp. the safe is rated for.Many other items guns, jewlery etc. will be fine. For media storage you CAN by safes rated to protect those items .

Do your homework BEFORE you buy .

Dude if you got a second floor on fire go in there and put it out ! Been to 100's of workers never seen a basemnet filled with water ?