page_title: Safe room
section_title: Construction techniques
hierarchical_section_title: Safe room / Construction techniques
caption_attribution_description: English: Jackson, TN, June 2, 2003 -- FEMA Mitigation provides information on building safe rooms inside homes for areas of the country prone to high winds. A mockup of a safe room is shown in the foreground. Photo by Mark Wolfe/FEMA News Photo
context_page_description: A safe room or panic room is a fortified room that is installed in a private residence or business to provide a safe shelter, or hiding place, for the inhabitants in the event of a break in, home invasion, tornado, terror attack, or other threat. Safe rooms usually contain communications equipment, so that law enforcement authorities can be contacted.
context_section_description: The most basic safe room is simply a closet with the hollow-core door replaced with an exterior-grade solid-core door that has a deadbolt and longer hinge screws and strike-plate screws to resist battering. Sometimes, the ceiling is reinforced, or gated, to prevent easy access from the attic or from an overhead crawl space.
  More expensive safe rooms have walls and a door reinforced with sheets of steel, Kevlar, or bullet-resistant fiberglass. The hinges and strike plate are often reinforced with long screws. Some safe rooms may also have externally vented ventilation systems and a separate telephone connection. They might also connect to an escape shaft.
  Safe rooms in the basement or on a concrete slab can be built with concrete walls, a building technique that is normally not possible on the upper floors of wood-framed structures unless there is significant structural reinforcement to the building.
  The U.S. State Department often uses steel grillwork much like a jail to seal off parts of a home used by U.S. Foreign Service members overseas when they are living in cities with a high crime threat.  In some cities, the entire upstairs area is grilled off, as well as every window and door to the home.  Other homes have steel doors to one or more bedrooms that can be bolted closed to provide time for security forces to arrive.
  For strong storms or tornadoes, a storm safe room must be built to withstand high winds and flying debris, even if the rest of the residence becomes severely damaged or destroyed. Specific concerns include:
   
  The safe room should be adequately anchored to the foundation to resist overturning and uplift.
  The walls, ceiling, and door of the shelter should withstand wind pressure and resist penetration by wind-borne objects or falling debris.
  The connections between all parts of the safe room should be strong enough to resist separation by wind.
  Sections of either interior or exterior residence walls which are used as walls of the safe room, should be separated from the structure of the residence so that damage to the residence will not cause damage to the safe room.
caption: FEMA Mitigation provides information on building safe rooms inside homes for areas of the country prone to high winds. A mockup of a safe room is shown in the foreground.
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