A Safe Room For Your Home
You have probably heard of the ‘safe room’ concept for inside your home – a room in which you or members of your family could retreat to in the event of a burglary, home invasion, or other emergency. But, have you ever thought about what it should be, and what should be inside this safe-room?
A safe room is a hiding place, should have no windows, should be fairly small – meaning that it is very structurally sound compared to larger rooms (e.g. a decent size closet will be supported by framing and the walls which are in close proximity, making it safer from collapse during an extreme weather event, and safer from immediate personal discovery by a burglar).
One example of a safe room might be a decent size closet, perhaps near or where the bedrooms are. The closet walls could potentially be modified with materials that might somewhat diminish the impact potential of bullets, which in turn would further strengthen the room for other disaster situations. I’ve not tested this, but, I’ve thought about the concept of adding a few layers of ‘backer-board’ – a cement board that is very dense, heavy, and used in various aspects of home construction.
About your safe room…
No windows.
Quickly accessible.
It must have only one ‘solid’ – not a sliding type of closet door.
Install a deadbolt on the door.
Install a peep hole in the door.
Whatever you decide for your safe room, just as important should be your decisions about what to keep inside it…
Firearm(s), safely stored.
Ammo.
Pepper spray.
Body armor.
Phone. (If land-lines are cut, a cell phone is better)
A list of phone numbers. (We all know ‘911’, right?)
Flashlights.
Food – Water.
Fire extinguishers.
AM/FM portable radio.
Give it some thought. Be it for weather disaster preparedness, and/or for home security from burglary or home invasion, a safe room could save your life or the lives of your family members. After you’ve given it some thought, go ahead and do it!
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