A good read.

Link

When my part of Bastrop County burned in 2011:

32,000 acres and 1,700 homes burned down to dirt or slabs. Big trees were deep craters where the fire kept burning below ground level. In helping friends and neighbors comb through the ashes, I can't count the number of expensive safes that did nothing to protect the valuables inside. Cutting into safes the hard way, yielded a lot of burned or evaporated stuff inside.

The problem was that the fire was big. So big, that virtually all of the 1,700 homes were simply allowed to burn themselves out - for a week. The massive crews were simply trying get ahead of it avoid it becoming twice as bad as it was.

For me, the lesson was that the with enough time and heat source, even the expensive models did nothing to protect the valuables inside. If an "event" is big enough to tie up the emergency responders, your 1hr. or 4hr. rated safe may not be enough on its own.

Marc

The right fire and nothing will make it. House near us just burned to ground only thing left was pool and a pile of ash.