Safe Rooms and Panic Rooms
If you’re a big fan of thriller movies, you may have seen the film Panic Room. The film features a mother and daughter hiding from three home invaders in a panic room, a special room that features four-inch thick steel walls. Before this movie, many people didn’t realise that panic rooms, also called safe rooms, actually existed, but they do. In fact, it’s possible to install a safe room in your own home, providing you have the proper home layout and the money.
Basically, safe rooms are there to provide you, your family, or your co-workers (some offices have safe rooms) a safe place to escape. Its main function is to protect you from a home invasion or if someone is attempting to rob your place of business. A safe room has only one way in, no windows, and no skylights. The main door is usually very thick and features a powerful locking mechanism so it can’t easily be forced open. A home safe room may be constructed from a good sized closet if there’s no true room that can easily be converted.
The door to a safe room must be solidly constructed. The simplest feature a solid-core door and it needs to have a deadbolt and also needs to feature plates on the outside that cover the hinge screws. More expensive safe rooms may actually have steel doors reinforced with fibreglass or Kevlar and include their own ventilation system. Basement-level safe rooms can be built using thick concrete for the walls, but on upper levels, this isn’t practical because of the weight.
A safe room should include a number of basic items. First and foremost is some form of communication device. Many include mobile phones, and some even have their own dedicated landlines. This is incredibly important since you will need to contact the authorities from inside the room. For that reason, it’s a good idea to have a mobile phone available since the landline can be cut. Some also feature an amateur radio transceiver for communicating with others. If your home or office has security cameras installed in it, the safe room usually contains monitors for these cameras. In safe rooms that lack cameras, the door may contain a small peephole.
In addition to a way of communicating with others, safe rooms are generally stocked with a number of emergency supplies. A stocked first aid kit, emergency food and water rations, a torch, candles, and blankets are usually left in the safe room for emergency use. Some form of weapon or other self-defence items may also be stored in the safe room. If you are on any form of medication, it’s a good idea to keep a small supply of it in the safe room if possible. A small fridge in the room, as well, may also be helpful, especially if you have refrigerated medication.
