So you don’t own gems or blue-chip stock. Imagine a curtain of fire or a wall of water destroying those priceless family photographs. For a little peace of mind, consider . . . : Playing It Safe

It’s a scene that’s played out in countless old movies and TV shows: The bedroom door creaks open and a masked man appears with a flashlight. He peeks behind pictures on the walls until he finds one that hides a safe. The burglar fiddles with the combination lock, opens the door and sticks his whole arm inside to reach a cache of jewelry.

“When I see that I laugh,” said Hawthorne locksmith Rob Edwards. “If you try to stick your arm inside a wall safe, all you’re going to get are some bruised knuckles. They’re only a few inches deep.”

It’s just part of the misinformation surrounding safes. Many people assume that they’re only for those who are hiding expensive jewelry and cash, but anybody with something of value, especially irreplaceable family photographs and documents, can use a safe.

“When I lost my photo albums, I felt like I lost a part of me,” said Gerri Walk of Encino, who had a house fire nine years ago and didn’t have a safe for her possessions. “It’s important to take care of those things, because once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

The first step when considering a safe is to evaluate your needs. “Look at what you’re trying to protect and what you’re trying to protect it from,” said John Salles of Acme Key Services in Van Nuys. “If it’s jewelry and important papers, put them all on a table to get an idea of how much space you’ll need.”

Safes are classified in three categories: fire, burglary and both. Fire safes are the most common and the least expensive. Burglary safes start at around $200. Safes rated for both are 20% to 30% more expensive.

If your jewelry collection is modest and you’re more interested in protecting documents, a simple fire safe, which can be found at most discount stores and home centers for as little as $30, will probably meet your needs. “Most people don’t have priceless jewelry, but they have priceless photographs and letters from great-grandparents, that sort of thing,” Edwards said. “So having a fire safe to protect these makes good sense.”

Fire safes are often made with a hard plastic exterior surrounding a plaster or concrete inner compartment. As the safe heats up in a fire, the melting components on the exterior form a seal around the opening, fusing the lid and body together.

“In a theft, you lose jewelry and money, but in a fire you lose everything,” said Cathy Callegari, a spokesperson for Sentry Group, a leading safe manufacturer. “That’s why you should always consider fire a real threat.”

Underwriters Laboratories rates safes according to the amount of fire protection they provide. In the average house fire, temperatures of at least 1,200 degrees are reached. The least expensive fire safes provide up to a half-hour of heat protection at those temperatures. More expensive models can protect items inside for up to two hours during a fire.

Special protection is suggested for storing valuable computer software disks, videotapes and photographic negatives. These items are extremely sensitive to heat, and they require a safe with an inner liner to keep the interior temperature below 125 degrees, the point at which electronic damage can occur.

Where’s the best place to put a fire safe? “It’s hard to pick an area of a house and say, ‘Fires don’t usually occur there,’ ” said Jim Williams of Ken’s Lock & Key in Corona. “You’re better off keeping it in a closet where it’s easy to get to.”

Although fire safes have locks, they’re generally not secure enough to prevent theft. “A thief can usually pry a common fire safe open with a screwdriver,” Salles said.

Burglary safes are rated on the basis of how long they can withstand being hammered, drilled and blow-torched before opening. The least expensive burglary safes can hold out for about 15 minutes, which is suitable for most residential needs. “Look for X6 on the label, which means that the 15-minute rating is good for all six sides,” said Wade Landrum of Tustin Lock & Safe.

More expensive burglary safes can resist a burglar’s blowtorch for more than an hour, and if your safe has a TX rating from Underwriter’s Laboratories, that means it should stay shut even after a dynamite blast.

Where to hide a burglary safe is a good question. “The obvious place is in the master bedroom,” Salles said. “That’s why many people choose to hide them in the kitchen or a spare bedroom.”

If your needs are to conceal jewelry and other valuables, you might choose to rent a safe deposit box at the bank. However, these don’t offer perfect security. “There have been cases in which bank robbers have taken safe deposit boxes,” Landrum said.

“People assume that because their valuables are in the bank, they’re insured. But they’re not. The FDIC [Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.] covers only money on deposit. If you don’t have your own insurance on your valuables and they’re taken from a safe deposit box, you’re out of luck.”

Although a burglary safe may not protect its contents from fire, it can receive a fire rating if it’s properly installed inside a concrete slab.

Floor safes are often hidden in such areas as a closet or a garage, where they can be easily concealed. “When it’s in a garage, I think one of the best places to hide a floor safe is under a car,” Landrum said. “The burglar then has to move the car to gain access to it.”

Floor safes, which are usually cylindrical, are generally installed in a home’s concrete foundation, but they can also be placed in older homes with raised foundations. A concrete form is generally built from the ground up to the floor level, then the safe is placed inside. Most also come with covers that fit over the openings to make them flush with the floor.

Experts recommend putting contents of floor safes in plastic containers so they are not damaged by water used to fight fires.

Although not as popular, the wall safe is a choice for those who live in condominiums where it’s not possible to install a floor safe. Think of a wall safe as a high-security medicine cabinet, because that’s basically how it fits into a wall. It’s set between the studs and bolted to them from the inside, making it nearly impossible to remove one whole. Their height and width make up for the lack of depth, and it’s possible to fit folders or large envelopes in a wall safe that wouldn’t fit easily in a floor safe.

The old-fashioned upright safes are the choice for those with lots of items to store because of the large space they provide. These are also the most expensive safes because of their size. “You’re limited as to where you can hide a large upright safe,” Landrum said. “It’s not easy getting a 2,000-pound safe up a flight of stairs.”

The most critical part of a safe’s security is its lock. The mechanical combination lock is still available on many models. “It’s truly time-tested, and a good-quality combination lock is an effective deterrent,” Salles said.

Digital locks on higher-end burglary safes are becoming the standard. “The better digital locks have some very attractive features,” Williams said. “They’re very simple to use; you simply press in your code number to open it and, when you shut it, the door locks. On combination locks, you need to turn the dial at least four times to scramble the combination after it’s closed, and many safe owners forget that.”

Some digital locks can also be connected to a home’s alarm system, and they can reveal the last time the safe was opened. “They also allow the owner to change the combination at will,” Landrum said. “With a mechanical lock, you must have a locksmith change the combination.”