Gannett News Service
Thomas Gaffney, president of Gaffco Inc., holds a section of bullet-resistant glass that has been shot five times with a .44-caliber Magnum hand gun. The bullets did not penetrate the glass. Gaffney's company installs bullet resistant glass and builds "safe rooms" in private homes.

Real 'safe rooms' offer secret refuge inside the home

CHRISTOPHER MELE, GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Originally published Saturday, March 23, 2002

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. -- When Tom Gaffney completes a bathroom-refinishing job, it looks the same as it did when he started. But look beyond the porcelain fixtures and tiled floors and you'll find the equivalent of a mini-fortress.

The walls, floor and ceiling have been reinforced with steel plates and bullet-resistant Plexiglas. The door, similarly outfitted, has a four-point system that locks into the jambs, floor and ceiling. The room has a fire suppression system and an oxygen tank. A secret compartment in the medicine cabinet has room for a gun and cellphone.

It sounds like a specially designed commode for James Bond. But, in reality, this is a "safe room," the likes of which are in high demand by corporate executives, foreign dignitaries and the well-to-do.

Rooms like these are at the center of the new Jodie Foster movie, "Panic Room," in theaters starting March 29. A divorced woman and her daughter are caught in a cat-and-mouse game inside their brownstone after three burglars come looking for a stash of cash. They hide in a "panic room," a secret refuge designed to protect occupants from intruders and would-be kidnappers.

Rise in demand

Demand in the safe-room market became "huge" after the Sept. 11 attacks, says Gaffney, president of Gaffco Inc. The Mount Vernon, N.Y., company manufactures and installs bullet resistant systems combined with high-end woodworking.

Before Sept. 11, the company built 25 safe rooms a year. In 2002, Gaffney expects to construct 200. "It's just gone off the rack," he said. "We're getting calls we never got before in our lifetime."

Master bathrooms at the homes of clients are converted to safe rooms because they're most accessible in the event of a nighttime break-in. The bathrooms have fully functional indoor plumbing and to the naked eye appear to be nothing extraordinary. But it's not every bathroom door that can withstand the blows of a sledgehammer.

Gaffney, who has built about 150 safe rooms in residential and corporate office settings over six years, noted that Gaffco's roots were in building check-cashing stores in New York City. "We learned a few tricks along the way," he says. Depending on how lavish the bathrooms are, costs can range from $30,000 to $100,000. "It all depends," he said. "I can build the Bat Cave."

Concealed

Although Gaffney's handiwork doubles as a bathroom, Nanuet, N.Y., security consultant William Coyle of Coyle Associates Inc. designs and builds safe rooms that are concealed. Think haunted mansion movies with sliding bookcases, false walls and faux fireplaces that open to hidden rooms.

"You don't write a sign that says 'safe room,' " Coyle says. In one case, he built a safe room behind a working elevator. The back elevator wall was a false wall leading to the room. Once closed behind the client, it was magnetically sealed.

Building a safe room requires the utmost secrecy. No one other than the client and builders subcontracted by Coyle know about the room. That means that hired help, such as butlers, maids and groundskeepers, are sent away on vacation during construction. Blueprints and designs are destroyed.

Such secrecy also means ignoring local laws that normally require building permits for such home improvements. "If you're going to file for a permit," Coyle says, shaking his head, "you might as well put it in the paper."

The work, which generally costs $30,000, always has required retrofitting an existing house or building. Coyle has yet to be able to design and construct a safe room from scratch as a house was being built. "We constantly lock horns with architects. They're there to build something fancy. Security -- it doesn't even cross their minds," he said.

Real 'Panic Room'

Coyle, a retired New York City police detective, scoffs at the promos for "Panic Room," which depict the heroine trapped for an extended period. "It's just not realistic in real life," he said. Safe rooms have multiple forms of communication with the outside world: phones, walkie-talkies and panic buttons to alert security forces.

The rooms are equipped with video monitors connected to cameras that pan the outside grounds and rooms in the house. The rooms are outfitted with exhaust systems and air packs, blankets, toiletries, water, a portable toilet and backpacking-type dried foods.

Given the communication systems with the outside world, clients should not have to be cooped up too long. Coyle says the rooms don't get too technical to operate because clients using them are in a frightful situation. "They don't have to be that big. They just have to be comfortable," he says.

Sometimes Coyle will set up false leads to distract an intruder about the true location of a safe room. He once put up a brick wall behind an elegantly carved mahogany door in the hopes that a would-be kidnapper would waste time trying to force his way through the wall.

"Where is the bad guy going to look? I've got to beat his way of thinking," he said. "If you think of security in the real world, you want to put the most obstacles between you and the bad guy."

Safe room walls consist of regular building materials on the exterior, but beneath that are layers of hard steel lattice sandwiched around bullet-resistant glass. Flame retardant material coats the walls. Sound-proofing also is put in place to muffle any noise. (Family pets must go in the room with clients because left outside, dogs and cats will find the room and provide the bad guys with a dead giveaway, Coyle says.)

Coyle worked in a variety of assignments over 20 years for the NYPD: executive protection, anti-crime, homicide, narcotics, terrorism investigations and intelligence. He made his mark as a technician dealing in surveillance with hidden cameras and so-called countermeasures, sweeping rooms for possible eavesdropping devices.

From his home office in Nanuet, he has built a security consulting business based exclusively on word of mouth. His clients range from business leaders of large recognizable corporations to the well-to-do. Corporations want to minimize kidnapping risks to protect their executives and so they don't become easy marks for future ransom demands.

Neither Coyle nor Gaffney have had clients who needed to use their safe rooms in real-life emergencies.

"There are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people who are depending on the person we are protecting," says Coyle, who makes his clients practice getting in and out of the rooms. "The hard part when you try to convince somebody about this, they only see this stuff on TV. They'll look at you and say, 'This guy's wacked.' "

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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