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So a few months back, a few neighbors in the apartment block I live in had a small fire. Luckily no one was hurt and the only damage was an old toaster, however, it got me thinking. As I store most of my important documents in a file cabinet – are file cabinets fireproof?
Only file cabinets made of stainless steel, cast iron, 316 stainless steel, and aluminum are fire-resistant from external fires between 600 and 1400 degrees celsius for a short time. If a fire occurs inside your cabinet, however, it will retain the fire as these metals are great insulators.
Other cabinets not made of fire-resistant materials should be avoided, as they are not fire-resistant.
So is there such a thing as a fireproof file cabinet? And what can you do to avoid fires in and around your file cabinets? Keep reading to find out more!
Now if you’re just interested in my recommendations for the best file cabinets that have the best weight capacity limits you can check them out here (all links take you to Amazon):
- Small cabinet (2 drawers)
- Medium Cabinet (3 drawers)
- Large (4 drawers)
(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)
Are file cabinets fireproof?
So imagine you’re at work or home, and finally printed off all your important files, stored them in your cabinet, only for a fire to break out and you lose everything.
Whilst this is hopefully a rare occurrence, the question has to be asked around if file cabinets are actually fireproof.
Whilst I’d love to give you one-sized fits all answer it depends on a few main points:
- How hot the fire is
- The materials your cabinet are made out of
Now luckily I’ve gone and done the painstaking work of working out the melting points of the materials that most file cabinets are made of, as well as the average temperature of house fires (and the materials that these are typically made up of) and come up with the following findings:
How hot the fire is
So the first thing to determine if file cabinets are fireproof is the temperature of the fire.
If you do get a fire in your home or work office, then your file cabinet will need to withstand a certain temperature.
Now typically fires are most commonly caused by cooking or heating equipment and spread by common materials such as:
- Wood
- Paper
- Electronics
- Metals
These materials burn at different rates meaning if there is wood or paper near your cabinet, that will burn at a different temperature than metals – thanks to safe and value store and ready.gov we have some baseline temperatures to work with.
| Type of material | Typical burning point temperature Fareinhieght | Typical burning point temperature celsius |
| Wood | 1112 degrees | 600 degrees |
| Paper | 475 degrees | 246 degrees |
| Electronics | 125 degrees | 51.6 degrees |
| Metals | 1000 degrees | 537 degrees |
Now pair up these burning points with room temperatures, which typically is 600 degrees at eye level or 100 degrees at floor level when most household/office fires take place, we can make the following assumption:
File cabinets will need to withstand external temperatures of 600 degrees Fahrenheit (315 Celsius) for most fires, with a wider range of 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51.6 celsius) to 1200 degrees Fahrenheit (649 Celsius) depending on the materials you store in your cabinet.
The materials your cabinet is made out of
So now that we know most file cabinets need to survive around 600 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s important that the material our file cabinets are made of are able to withstand this temperature.
This is to ensure that the materials we keep won’t be melted by our file cabinets, melting.
Most file cabinets then are made of the following materials:
- Stainless steel
- Cast iron
- Aluminum
- 316 stainless steel
- Oak
- MDF
To help to explain these burning/melting points I’ve put together a table once again using information from the likes of the ASSDA:
| File cabinet material | Burning/melting point Fahrenheit | Burning/melting point celsius |
| Stainless steel | 2552 degrees | 1400 degrees |
| Cast Iron | 2300 degrees | 1260 degrees |
| Aluminum | 1220 degrees | 660 degrees |
| 316 Stainless Steel | 1292 degrees | 700 degrees |
| Oak | 572 degrees | 300 degrees |
So using this information we can summerize then that:
Stainless steel is able to survive the most heat at 2552 degrees Fahrenheit or 1400 degrees celsius. Most file cabinets made of pure oak, iron, and aluminum also offer a good amount of heat resistance between 572 degrees to 2300 degrees Fahrenheit (300 to 1260 degrees celsius)
The verdict
So using all the data we have found we can make a few assumptions around file cabinet being fireproof:
No file cabinet regardless of material is 100% fireproof. Stainless steel file cabinets offer the best protection at 2552 degrees Fahrenheit (1400 celsius). Most file cabinets however will offer protection against most house/office fires which are typically 600 degrees Fahrenheit (315 celsius)
Some other key points then you should know from the findings:
- No file cabinet is 100% fireproof – should the temperature of the fire exceed what your file cabinet can take then it will burn.
- File cabinets are fantastic insulators – this means that even though they are great at stopping fires from the outside getting in – should the fire get inside your cabinet they will retain the heat and likely destroy any items you have in there.
- Avoid wood file cabinets – this is true should you have items stored in your cabinet that burn at lower temperatures such as electronics or paper
- Stainless steel, cast iron, aluminum, and 316 stainless steel are the best materials for fire-resistant file cabinets.
- Consider fire length – should your file cabinets be exposed to these temperatures for more than 5 minutes then file cabinets will typically then start to melt.
What makes a file cabinet fireproof?
File cabinets are fireproof due to the materials they are made from. Aluminum, stainless steel, and cast iron all have very high heat resistance. Meaning they can often prevent cabinets from burning at common fire temperatures.
Some file cabinets such as wood or plastic file cabinets have metal materials laced in them for some form of fire resistance.
However, in these situations, they are less likely to be fireproof as if they were made 100% of fire-resistant material.
What are some good fireproof file cabinets?
So a lot of you reading this are likely in the market for fireproof file cabinets.
Whilst there is a fantastic selection out there my recommendation would have to be the fire king file cabinet (link takes you to Amazon).
Not only does it contain 100% galvanized steel wire for added fire resistance, but it also is made of iron which as we know has a melting point of 2300 degrees Fahrenheit.
How to avoid fires near your file cabinets?
So now we know what materials your file cabinet should be made of what are some top tips to avoid fire in the first place.
After all – the whole point of buying something fire-resistant is so that we never have to use it.
The following tips then I found work best:
Ensure your fire alarms are working
Whilst fire alarms can definitely be frustrating especially if they go off as often as mine seem to do, having fire alarms that are up to date, regularly checked, and have functioning batteries is going to work wonders.
It will help you rest assured knowing in the event of a fire you will be alerted right away.
Store your file cabinet away from hazards
One of the most common causes of fire cabinets burning is that they are near items that frequently catch fire.
These are typically items with a lot of electronics such as computers, switches, or heat items such as gas fires, radiators, and cookers.
To avoid then, ensure your file cabinets are kept away from any of these items, or better yet store them in a home office or other space for best results.
Are all file cabinets fireproof?
So reading this you might think it’s possible to get any old file cabinet so long as it is made of steel, aluminum, or cast iron right?
Sadly the truth is a little more complicated.
You see whilst a lot of file cabinets are made of things like materials we mentioned above – in order to keep costs down, manufacturers will often skimp out on the amount of these items used.
To ensure then that whatever file cabinet you do decide to go with is fire resistant that you lookout for the following:
- Ensure it is made of 100% fireproof materials
- Ensure the cabinet is on the pricer side – usually, more expensive file cabinets are more likely to be fireproof
- Enure they are water-resistant – file cabinets that also have build-in water protection for items are also likely to have a fire resistance of some kind.
- Consider 18 gauge steel cabinets – these are usually the most common fire-resistant file cabinets.
The problem with fireproof/fire resistant cabinets
Before you consider getting a fireproof file cabinet there is a major defect that a lot of file cabinets share – even if they are made of fire-resistant materials.
You see whilst materials like stainless steel or aluminum have very high melting points meaning that you won’t have to worry about the cabinets themselves burning or melting in fires.
The materials inside are often not fire-resistant, meaning that an increase in heat can cause significant damage.
To give you an example let’s say you are storing paper files in your cabinet and a fire breaks out.
Whilst the cabinet will offer protection against the fire other issues such as smoke damage will still occur damaging your items.
On top of this, there are small gaps in your cabinet that can cause the items inside to burn regardless.
This problem is only made worse as most fireproof cabinets are great at insulation, meaning if the items inside your file cabinet do start to burn, then they will keep the heat in your items further growing the fire.
To avoid this ensure the items you put in your cabinets have the following fire protection standards:
- NT017- 60 – for paper items
- MTC-DIP120-60DM – for digital items
Are file cabinets fireproof or fire resistant?
Another consideration you need to understand is how fireproof file cabinets actually are.
You see whilst a lot of companies will state that their file cabinets are fireproof the truth is a little more complicated.
Fireproof more often than not means fire resistant
Fire resistance means it is able to withstand a certain temperature of fire for a certain period of time.
To give you an example this file cabinet from Wayfair whilst advertised as fire resistant in the first instance upon further reading we can see that it is only fireproof for 5 minutes at 30 degrees celsius.
This means if a fire were to break out at 30 degrees then the cabinet would not be resistant for more than five minutes.
Considering that most house fires are around 600 degrees Fahrenheit then this cabinet won’t work well.
Ensure then that whatever you do you read up on your own file cabinets individual heat and fire-resistant capabilities.
Wrapping things up
So as you can tell, the answer is a little more complicated than we would like however, to wrap things up we can summarize with the following.
- Most file cabinets made of stainless steel and other high melting metals such as aluminum and iron will offer some degree of fire resistance for short periods of time.
- Other materials such as wood can offer some degree of fire resistance however this will likely not offer much resistance against higher temperature fires
- Whilst fire resistance works for some of these cabinets, fire resistance might only be possible for a few minutes of time at the maximum temperature the cabinets can withstand.
- The items in your cabinet may still be damaged via smoke or other side effects of fire should you still purchase a fireproof cabinet.
- To ensure then that you have a 100% fire-resistant file cabinet, ensure the manufacturer has this all in place and advertises this.
What else should I know about file cabinets?
Finally, a lot of you reading this will have quite a few questions about file cabinets.
Luckily, I’ve pulled together some of my recent posts talking all about them which you can check out below:
- Can you stack file cabinets?
- How deep are file cabinets?
- Why are file cabinets so expensive?
- How to use a file cabinet without rails
- How much weight can a file cabinet hold?
- Can you scrap file cabinets?
The content on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decade worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.