Fire & Security

Listen to Thomas's Experience through a recent house fire

The fire occurred on 05/19/19 at 1845 Hrs. and started as a result of a rouge lighting strike. It was raining hard but there was not a lot of lighting in the immediate area. I was inside the garage at 1800 Hrs. just 15 minutes before the lighting hit.

I went inside my house when I heard the bang from the lighting. All the power in the home went out immediately. A short time thereafter my wife Theresa, who was upstairs at the time, yelled down and said the garage was on fire. I walked outside to the garage and saw the majority of the south portion of the garage was on fire. I went into the garage and was able to back out my pick-up truck and Theresa car but was unable to save the Jeep and ATV due to the fire spreading rapidly to the aforementioned vehicles. There was nothing else that could be done. The fire department arrived and eventually extinguished the fire before it could destroy the house which is situated approximately 10' from the garage. The entire side of the house facing the garage was scorched and siding melted. It was not till the next day when we saw nothing within the garage was left with the exception of the Old Glory Safe. Two other safes a Stack On, Safari and their contents were destroyed. Due to the heat of the fire the electronic key pad on the front of the Old Glory Safe was terminated. I attempted to open the safe by using the back-up key provided but the door was warped from the heat and would not open. A locksmith was necessary to open the safe.

To my amazement with the exception of a few cracked scopes and melted scope lens covers all the contents inside survived. The contents included numerous rifles, pistols, knifes, bayonets, magazines for the pistols/rifles, cash, jewelry and additional paper documents. All the items had to be cleaned due to the smoke/soot but the safe did what it was designed to do. Protect the valuables locked within. I would like to thank the all the members of The Old Glory Safe Co. for producing a high quality product.