A friend of mine (now deceased) had a fire, and had several guns were involved, though not to the extent that the O/P mentioned. His were more of a burnt/peeled the finish on the wood and water damage, though he did get the guns out almost immediately. He had a friend who did reblueing and another who did refinishing, so several of the guns went to be redone. A few years later, I was looking for a particular gun, and knew he had several, so I did some trading with him on it. I was shooting skeet with it, and on the second clay shot after a day of shooting with it, the gun failed to completely eject the casing. I just kicked the cartridge out and went to put another in, when something caught my eye. Upon better inspection, the two sides of the receiver were slightly bowed out. Sent the gun to the manufacturer, and a sample of the factory shells to the loading company, both came back pointing fingers at the other. Nothing wrong with the ammo, per ammo company, must be the gun, nothing wrong with the gun, must have been the ammo per the gun company. I got to thinking about it, and now the gun sits in the corner unrepaired, as a reminder that guns have a history that is never forgotten, even if the owner forgets, or just doesn't know. This friend of mine would never (in my opinion of him) have sold a gun to anyone, especially me, if he thought it would have ever malfunctioned.
Heat from a fire reaches temps that changes metal without it being visible to the eye, or even microscope sometimes. If there is a fire, consider that it may be one of your kids putting the gun to their shoulder when the receiver blows up in their face. It may look safe, but is it? I still consider myself EXTREMELY LUCKY with that receiver going KABOOM.
David from jax