Fireproof Gun Safes: How to Read the Fire Rating

A gun safe with a fire rating is two products in one box: a burglary container and a fire container. Each half has its own test, its own label and its own fine print. This page covers the fire half. For burglary ratings, start with our guide to UL safe ratings.

A fire-rated gun safe is a gun safe with a second rating

Most gun safes are built first to keep people out. Under UL 1037, gun safes are rated as Residential Security Containers (RSC), and UL Solutions lists that standard as the one gun safes are evaluated to. An RSC rating is a burglary rating. It says nothing about fire.

Fire resistance is rated separately. The UL standard for it is UL 72, which covers record protection equipment. A gun safe can have an RSC rating, a fire rating, both, or neither.

So a gun safe fire rating is an extra claim, sitting next to the burglary claim. It needs its own evidence. When a listing says "fire and burglary rated", look for two named ratings and two named testers.

Fire-resistant gun safes rely on a fire-resistant lining and a door seal inside the steel. The manufacturer's manual or listing names the lining and the door seal. The rating tells you how the complete safe did in a test, which matters more than any single material.

Who a fire-resistant gun safe is for, and who can skip the rating

Home fires are common. The NFPA estimates US fire departments responded to 329,500 home structure fires in 2024. That figure is the case for paying attention to the fire line at all.

A home fire-rated gun safe makes sense if:

• The safe will also hold papers. Deeds, passports and titles often end up next to the rifles.
• The firearms are hard to replace. Heirlooms, collector pieces, anything with a history.
• You want one box instead of two. A gun safe with a suitable fire class can stand in for a separate document safe.

A non-fireproof gun safe can be a reasonable choice too. Skip the fire rating, or don't pay extra for a longer one, if:

• You store documents somewhere else. A small fire-rated document box may protect papers better than a large gun safe; see our fire-rated document boxes.
• You need a quick-access handgun safe. That's a different product with a different job; see handgun safes.
• You mostly need controlled access. If the goal is keeping firearms away from unauthorized people, the lock and anchoring do that work. Fire rating doesn't.

Gun safe fire rating: what to look for before anything else

A fire rating is a sentence with three parts: how long, how hot, and who tested it. Drop one and it stops being a rating. The Marketing Department likes to print one part in very large type and let the other two go quiet.

How long. The duration of fire exposure. UL time ratings are commonly listed as, for example, ½, 1 or 2 hours. In-house ratings are often given in minutes.

How hot. This is where two very different numbers share one word. A UL 72 rating names a class, and UL describes the class as the maximum interior temperature reached during testing. Class 350, for example, means the inside stayed at or below 350°F. An in-house rating usually names a furnace temperature: how hot it was outside the safe. The outside number describes the fire. The inside number describes the result.

Who tested it. An independent lab such as UL, or Intertek, which issues the ETL marks and is an OSHA-recognized testing laboratory. Or the manufacturer itself. Both can be useful. An independent rating is the stronger claim, because the lab has no safe to sell.

Then match the class to the contents. UL 72 says Class 350 ratings are intended to protect paper records. Class 150 adds non-paper records, and Class 125 also covers flexible computer disks. A gun safe rated for paper is not a promise about a hard drive.

Some UL fire ratings add an impact test. UL drops those products 30 feet while hot and puts them back in the furnace. Not every UL 72 rating includes that test, so check whether "impact" is on the label.

Watch for "modified" tests as well. Intertek's verification for one line of SentrySafe chests and files, for example, uses a modified UL 72 with the fire endurance test only. Independent lab, modified standard. Say both halves when you compare.

Fire and waterproof gun safe claims need the same three parts

A water claim is a second rating with the same structure: how long, how deep, and who tested it. Intertek's SentrySafe verification is one public example of the format. It used a modified UL 50E submersion test in 2 inches of water for 24 or 72 hours, allowing no more than 5 grams of water inside.

That's the level of detail to expect. Hold any gun safe water claim to the same standard. If water matters to you, look for a stated depth, a stated time and a named tester, or see our waterproof safes page.

The door seal is the part you can look after. Many fire-rated doors use an intumescent seal, which Liberty Safe describes as a material that expands when exposed to heat. Its gasket-care article advises inspecting the seal for splits, brittleness and gaps at the corners, and cleaning it with a soft, slightly damp cloth, and avoiding bleach- or ammonia-heavy cleaners. Other makers publish their own care steps in the manual.

How to read this table and compare fire-rated gun safes

The table is sorted by fire rating length, longest first. Length is only one of the three parts, so read across before you read down.

• Fire columns. Fire protection in minutes, the test temperature, and who tested it. A rating with a lab name and a class is a different kind of claim from a rating with a furnace temperature and the manufacturer's name.
• A dash means not confirmed. Gun safes confirmed as not fire-rated are left out. A gun safe whose fire rating we couldn't confirm stays in, with a dash, so you can check it yourself.
• Compare like with like. Two in-house ratings from the same maker can be ranked against each other. An in-house rating and a UL class can't be converted into one another.
• Then check the burglary line. A long fire rating on thin steel is still thin steel. Look for an RSC rating, the steel gauge and the lock.

The most fire-resistant gun safe on paper is the one with the longest rating from an independent lab, in a class that suits what you store. Everything else is a trade-off you should make on purpose.

Modular gun safes follow the same rule. If a modular design has a fire rating, it should state time, temperature and tester like any other. See modular gun safes.

For heavier steel, see heavy-duty gun safes. For a gun safe of any kind, with or without a fire rating, start at our gun safes page.

Brands that make fire-rated gun safes

The brands below have gun safes in this table. Their pages list each brand's models with the fire line, the burglary line and the source for each.

Before you buy, find the fire line on the listing and write it out as three parts: how long, how hot, who tested it. If one is missing, ask the manufacturer for it in writing. Then check the price, and bolt it down where it will stand. For the long version of every fire question, read our guide to gun safe fire ratings.