Reminder - important documents

[Tradd]

A FB friend’s parents’ home just burned down. The parents had their important documents in a supposedly fire-resistant metal box, but the box was badly damaged and so were the papers inside. Parents had refused to get a safety deposit box or have any other storage method (copies on a hard drive elsewhere, in the cloud), etc. Everything was hard copy only and it’s gone. Same with family photos. No one had scans.

So just make sure your plan of saving important papers has redundancy and nothing in the same place.

[bae]

I have been to perhaps a 20 house and business fires in which there was a "fire-resistant" box or safe involved.

In only one case did the documents survive a fully-involved structure fire. The time period that the building is cooking off and cooking during overhaul is simply too long for most of the rating levels. In the fire where the commercial fire-resistant safe *did* survive, we went in actively *during* the fire to pull out the safe, but I suspect it wouldn't have lasted the entire duration of the incident if we had left it there.

In several cases, a "fire-resistant" box/safe *did* save the contents in a simple room-and-contents fire, but the time period involved is quite a bit lower.

I keep my own important things in decently-rated boxes/envelopes/safes, but I don't expect them to survive a full-on fire here, so I keep copies on the cloud, and in my bank safe deposit box.

Also, please, if your house is seriously on fire(*), don't dork around trying to save any contents of your home, get the heck out as fast as you can, closing all doors to interior compartments of the home on your way out.

(*) That is, if your well-placed fire extinguisher doesn't do the job instantly....

[iris lilies]

We have a useless safe in our house is never locked. It is annoying that I could never convince DH to keep things in a bank vault.


But now that we have digital files and copies etc. I have digital copies of most things.

[Tradd]

I have been to perhaps a 20 house and business fires in which there was a "fire-resistant" box or safe involved.

In only one case did the documents survive a fully-involved structure fire. The time period that the building is cooking off and cooking during overhaul is simply too long for most of the rating levels. In the fire where the commercial fire-resistant safe *did* survive, we went in actively *during* the fire to pull out the safe, but I suspect it wouldn't have lasted the entire duration of the incident if we had left it there.

In several cases, a "fire-resistant" box/safe *did* save the contents in a simple room-and-contents fire, but the time period involved is quite a bit lower.

I keep my own important things in decently-rated boxes/envelopes/safes, but I don't expect them to survive a full-on fire here, so I keep copies on the cloud, and in my bank safe deposit box.

Also, please, if your house is seriously on fire(*), don't dork around trying to save any contents of your home, get the heck out as fast as you can, closing all doors to interior compartments of the home on your way out.

(*) That is, if your well-placed fire extinguisher doesn't do the job instantly....

Thanks, Bae! I figured you would probably have some good input on the topic!

[jp1]

My biggest concern regarding critical papers are my tax filings and my password vault. Both are backed up in the cloud and the password vault also exits on my phone so as long as I take that with me when I leave the house we will be fine. Most photos have been scanned but aren’t backed up anywhere other than an external drive stored at home. Maybe I need to take care of that. I could probably set up a secondary Dropbox account for that using a different email address.

[Tradd]

My tax filings are all done digitally on TurboTax’s website. I pay the $40 per year for filing so a lot of info carries over and they keep everything, as well as me having the digital files here. My password vault is on my phone and controlled by Apple ID, so as long as I can remember that, I’m fine

[bae]

When I finish up every year, I make sure to email myself a copy of the various Turbotax files, as an extra layer of defense.

[Tradd]

When I finish up every year, I make sure to email myself a copy of the various Turbotax files, as an extra layer of defense.

That’s a good idea!

[iris lilies]

I don’t try to protect an archive of tax filings. Wouldn’t the IRS have copies available if I needed them?


I don’t keep anything of significance in the cloud. All passwords to our financial accounts is on a thumb drive with a paper print out. We keep track of the paper print out and thumb drive. That’s probably excessively paranoid, but… To me, those are the only things that are really not available publicly. We keep it in a bag in a convenient place and we would grab it if possible. If not possible, I’m not sure it’s all that hard to re-create.

My state does not have abstracts for real estate. Those were very expensive and precious documents in Iowa, but not here.

[Teacher Terry]

I have digital copies of everything and all I plan to take in a fire is my dogs, purse and medication.

[Tradd]

I remember reading in an article about the Lahaina fire that a couple had $50K in cash in a supposedly fire proof box. Gone!

[Tradd]

I don’t try to protect an archive of tax filings. Wouldn’t the IRS have copies available if I needed them?


I don’t keep anything of significance in the cloud. All passwords to our financial accounts is on a thumb drive with a paper print out. We keep track of the paper print out and thumb drive. That’s probably excessively paranoid, but… To me, those are the only things that are really not available publicly. We keep it in a bag in a convenient place and we would grab it if possible. If not possible, I’m not sure it’s all that hard to re-create.

My state does not have abstracts for real estate. Those were very expensive and precious documents in Iowa, but not here.

I wouldn’t count on a thumb drive being the only electronic backup. I hear lots of horror stories about those going bad. An extra hard drive might be a good second option.

[iris lilies]

I wouldn’t count on a thumb drive being the only electronic backup. I hear lots of horror stories about those going bad. An extra hard drive might be a good second option.
That’s what Is recommended elsewhere, for sure. I just have not got around to it. I consider the real backup to be paper.

[mschrisgo2]

Well, I know someone who lost their home in one of the California wildfires. They had about a 20 minute evacuation warning. He took a duffel bag to his standing 600lb safe, and scraped each shelf clean, into the bag. When he was able to access the property 10 days later, there was a molten puddle where the safe had been. He was lucky they were home, could just as easily been off traveling.

For those with dogs, I recommend keeping extra collars and leashes, bowls, food and water in your car. You can get out a lot faster if you just pick up the dog and walk out, instead of locating and putting on collars and leashes.