I put important documents in a safe, so that it is beyond the reach of my small kids. So that they cannot doodle/cut/tear/wet my important papers. If they accidentally start a fire in my house, at least the safe would offer a certain degree of protection for the papers.
During the last 2 years, many countries experienced flooding. I noticed people standing on their rooftop waiting to be rescue. That means if they had a safe at home, that safe is under water.
There were reports of local bank being submerged and content of safe deposit boxes ruined by water.
Hence, I thought of putting the safe content into a waterproof bag or double zip lock.
Theft & burglary is not a concern. If you allow another person to approach your safe with hand or power tools. I doubt if any safe sold in Walmart would be able to resist the attack.
"Fireproof" does not mean "nice and cool inside". Typical rating temperatures are 350 degrees inside the safe.
Yes, I did not expect room temperature inside and not aware it is so hot.
Maybe put your documents inside a cardboard sleeve, then put THAT inside the baggies. So in a fire the cardboard would stop the melting plastic from touching your documents.
Thanks for the tip.
They are a plastic on the outside that is designed to melt therefore sealing the gap where the lid opens to prevent water intrusion. My gun safe has special rubber seals around the door that are supposed to melt sealing the door from water/smoke intrusion as well.
Thanks for the info, that is assuming there is fire to melt the rubber seal. What if the water came first ?
The thing to be careful of if you put your documents in a baggie is the safe is only heat resistant, it won't prevent it from getting hot inside, what its designed to do is keep the inside temperatures from reaching the flashpoint of paper. The melting point of most plastics is below the flashpoint of paper so plastic in your fire safe can melt even though the paper is safe. Thats why they make media safe's that cost more but keep a lower internal temperature below where your plastic cd's and such will melt.
Noted.
documents are copied on a couple of thumb drives....one at a relative's that is the executor of my will, and the other in a sealed pill bottle in my car...
I had scanned copies on multiple thumb drives too.
Sometimes copies just won't do, especially if the paper has sentimental value such as the only photo of you and your late father fishing by a river.
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