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NEW YORK CITY, MAY 06, 2002 Gaffco
receives write-up in Westchester County Business Journal (see article below).
Increasing
Demand For Safe Rooms
by
Elizabeth Hlotyak
For
the past five years Tom Gaffney, president of Gaffco Inc., has been
on average installing 15 to 20 residential safe rooms each year.
If all goes well, Gaffney is on his way to installing as many as
75 this year into residential homes all over the tri-state area.
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Tom
Gaffney shows off a unit of ballistic glass that withstood
the impact from multiple rounds of a 44 Magnum.
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Gaffney
has been designing and manufacturing safe rooms and bullet-resistant
systems for government facilities, financial centers, medical
facilities, Fortune 100 corporations and individuals requiring
protection for personnel and assets since 1986. By 1990, Gaffco
was responsible for remodeling and building about 275 check-cashing
facilities throughout the tri-state area.
"We
did a lot of work for check-cashing facilities, banks and post
offices," said Gaffney about his Mount Vernon company that
has grown from just himself to 30 employees today. "Then
we started doing work for governmental and city facilities, like
police stations and parking-ticket payment centers. It was then
about five to six years ago that I became involved in installing
residential safe rooms."
SIGNIFICANT
INCREASE
Demand in the safe-room market has increased after the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, according to Gaffney. Rooms like these have
been in use for many years by money and financial institutions—
a secured teller's booth is actually a safe room — but the
demand for residential safe rooms has seen a significant increase
recently.
"I
think it (a safe room) is giving people a higher sense of security
since 9-11," said Gaffney. "A safe room is a place to run and
hide in case there is an intruder in your home. It can give a
family a higher comfort level. It goes along side life insurance."
Safe
rooms are typically six-sided enclosures made of bullet-resistant,
fireproof coated steel and other bullet resistant materials. They're
designed to protect occupants from intruders until help can arrive,
generally up to 30 minutes, although various levels of protection
can be added.
"A
ballistic level one can stop a 9-millimeter hand gun," added Gaffney.
"A level 8 can stop an AK-47." Besides providing ballistic protection,
the safe room also provides force protection, withstanding forces
from sledgehammers to chain saws.
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