OPM/ICC-ESR Evaluations
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Clients Say
Why Clients Trust SAFE-T-PROOF™
"I cannot begin to express my gratitude for your team's work! Teresa followed up with me right away and offered same day service, while I was not prepared to accept same day, she offered me the next day at perfect time to ensure no disruption to patient care. Teresa and her team provided incredible communication and service and did an amazing job with the install and clean up. Thank you for your incredible customer service. I look forward to working with your team again."
Sutter Health
"I have worked with Safe-T-Proof on several laboratory seismic anchoring projects of varying scope and complexity since 2017. The team has always gone the extra mile to accommodate our project needs and I am especially grateful for the support that Teresa provides to our organization. Teresa is always ready to roll up her sleeves in order to get our project across the finish line. She meticulously carries out her responsibilities to make sure each project outcome meets or exceeds expectations. It has also been great to work with the installation crew. I appreciate their energy, their extensive knowledge, and their solution-oriented mindset. I look forward to working with this team for years to come."
Stanford University School of Medicine
"we will be ordering A LOT more items from Safe-t-proof as the ordering and shipping process was AMAZING."
Edna M.
"This is perfect. It definitely makes it easier for our future designs."
Jeff T., P.E.
THE SAFE-T-PROOF™ WAY OF LIFE
SAFE-T-PROOF™ is committed to providing the most advanced earthquake preparation and fastening technologies available - ensuring the safety and well-being of our clients and friends. We realize the world is forever changing; natural disasters are continuing worldwide. If we, as a company and, more importantly, as human beings, can continue to help in preparing people for a safer future, then we are doing our job.
"At SAFE-T-PROOF™ our mission is to save lives and secure property through innovative and elegantly engineered Earthquake Fastening Systems. By visiting our site, you've taken the first step in developing an action plan to help your family or company prepare. Our safety products are found in hundreds of schools, hospitals, Fortune 500 companies and homes throughout the world. Please browse our wide selection and contact us with any questions or needs you may have. We're always pleased to serve."Michael Essrig, President & Founder SAFE-T-PROOF™
It's the SAFE-T-PROOF™ way of life.
A leader in safety design & innovation with humble beginnings, SAFE-T-PROOF™ was founded by Michael Essrig in 1993 on the simple notion of protecting families from disaster related injuries and fatalities. A California native, Essrig remembered as a young boy experiencing the terror of the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake and barely escaping serious injury when all the furniture in the house started flying all over the place.
Birth of a Needed Service
Now a parent with two babies at home and a wife at work, he became frightened at what the next earthquake could do and decided it was time to be proactive instead of reactive. Essrig secured every piece of furniture in his house - installed safety latches on every cabinet and added an automatic gas shut-off valve. When he finished, he had peace of mind and that the idea that doing this for other people seemed to be a worthy and much needed service. He did his homework and – with a little encouragement from his friends – the company was born.
Real Test
Slowly but surely, the business expanded from preparing homes to servicing businesses, schools, and hospitals. All this hard work was put to the test on January 17, 1994. At 4:31 a.m. the ground shook and everything he had said and done was on the line. By the time the phones were back up, he knew he was in the right business. His phone began ringing off the hook with calls from clients thanking him for the preparations he had made. Everything he had fastened held and the emergency kits saved lives. However, he wasn’t quite ready for what came next.
Media Attention
The media picked up Michael's story and the phone calls - now 300 to 500 a day, seven days a week - became overwhelming! People lined up around the block waiting to buy fasteners and emergency supplies from his garage! His house was converted into a showroom and business soared from there. These humble beginnings launched SAFE-T-PROOF™ into what it is today: Now the leading disaster preparedness company of its kind, with services and products used and sold worldwide. SAFE-T-PROOF™ has since moved away from emergency supplies and food rations to focus exclusively on providing elegantly engineered solutions for fastening the contents of buildings – whether those be offices, labs, hospitals, or homes. These high-quality products provide safety for your loved ones and continuity for your business.
Pioneering Unique Awareness Campaigns
One of the world's first mobile earthquake simulators of its kind, the SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage utilizes realistic, intense earthquake-like motion and audio-visual elements to create an immersive experience of being in an earthquake without the danger. A powerful teaching and educational tool, the SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage can recreate the duration and intensity of shaking felt by people in parts of Loma Prieta near San Francisco during the 1989 (6.9 magnitude) earthquake or in parts of Los Angeles during the 1994 (6.7 magnitude) earthquake. These “rides,” only last approximately 30 seconds.
9.5 Magnitude Earthquake Experience, Anyone?
Due to fault line size, Californians luckily will not experience earthquakes of much larger magnitude at home because, for the SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage to replicate a 9.5 magnitude earthquake, this degree of shaking would need to continue for more than 11 minutes! So far no one has volunteered to ride it for that long. The SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage has been featured on dozens of television programs and talk shows while educating the public on earthquakes, disaster preparedness, and fastening solutions for the home, office, and hospital. Winning the Western States Seismic Policy Council’s “Product of the Year” Award, the SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage line now extends to clients such as the State of Alaska, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Navy.
Innovation
Additionally, SAFE-T-PROOF™ now features multiple “First Ever” products, such as the first earthquake cabinet latch: SeismoLatch. No wonder our company was recently named “One of the most innovative companies in the world”! (UPS)
Our Clients
Over the years, SAFE-T-PROOF™ has had the honor of serving hundreds of top-quality companies such as ARCO, AT&T, Boeing North America/Rocketdyne Division, USC, Cal-Tech University, Hewlett-Packard, MGM Studios, 20th Century Fox Studios, Walt Disney Studios, MCI WorldCom, NTT and Toshiba in Japan just to name a few. Dozens of California hospitals now use SAFE-T-PROOF™, including City of Hope National Medical Center and Cedar’s Sinai. SAFE-T-PROOF™ has been chosen widely in the life-science sector, with clients like Amgen, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson using our fasteners.
Trusted
We have also developed good working relationships with organizations such as HCAI (formerly OSHPD), FEMA, Cal-OES, ECA, CREW and CUSEC. Most striking is that the USGS and the American Red Cross have trusted SAFE-T-PROOF™ for the securing of the contents of their own buildings!
Not Only for California
Recent earthquakes and tragedies outside of California have motivated disaster preparedness education throughout the United States. Fasteners are being purchased from Alaska to Florida, and from New York to Guam. As personal preparedness spreads to a new cultural awareness – even being taught in elementary schools – the word is out, and many Americans are on a mission to create "Safer Spaces."
SAFE-T-PROOF™
Meet The Team
President & Founder
Michael Essrig
With 30+ years in healthcare construction and seismic retrofitting, Michael Essrig is now the President & Founder of ETC Building & Design, Inc. & SAFE-T-PROOF™ Disaster Preparedness Co., Inc. A Californian entrepreneur, Michael started SAFE-T-PROOF™ after escaping the Sylmar earthquake. His patented fastening system is widely used in institutions like Genentech and Stanford. He also invented the Quake Cottage™, a mobile earthquake simulator, featured on national TV. Michael and his team have led over 4 million sq ft of healthcare and life science construction in California, making ETC a top firm in the field.
CEO of ETC Building & Design DBA SAFE-T-PROOF™
John Mentzer
John Mentzer worked for a custom home builder while putting himself through Purdue University. After graduating from the premier Building Construction Management school in the country, he decided to take on the most difficult and rewarding type of construction, Healthcare. John began his career with Centex Healthcare Division (now Balfour Beatty) on which he worked on or oversaw $650M of negotiated GMP ground up Healthcare construction projects, totaling over 2.5M square feet of new construction.
Over time, John’s work took him all over the country, eventually landing him in California in 1998. He got his initiation in OSHPD, gaining his IOR license (OSHPD inspector A-20169). He received his general contractor’s license in 2001. During this time, he worked on numerous renovations and out-of-the-ground construction, progressing to Director of Operations and then Vice President of West Coast Operations.
He met Michael Essrig while looking for an NPC2 contractor for seven HCA hospitals in 1999. John was impressed with how Essrig worked -- coming in ahead of schedule and under budget, and always making things right. This led John to join ETC, becoming a partner in the firm in 2006.
Since joining ETC, John has joined the Hospital Building Safety Board (HBSB) as a consulting member on the committee on IOR, helping to enhance communications and process between owners, contractors, inspectors and OSHPD on construction projects. John took on the role of CEO of ETC Building & Design DBA SAFE-T-PROOF™ in 2023.
Vice President
Glen Granholm
After a thirty-year career in management and marketing, Glen joined the SAFE-T- PROOF™ team in 2006. In the years since, he has grown to become a nationally-recognized expert in the field of an industry called “non-structural earthquake damage mitigation” or the securing of contents in buildings to keep things in place during an earthquake. Glen has been called upon to assist in the development of earthquake bracing protocols for statewide assisted living facilities and more than a dozen food distribution agencies, major universities, and Fortune 50 pharmaceutical companies. After playing a critical role in assisting the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank get awarded with more than $2 Million in grant dollars for the retrofit of their main campus, Glen was key in the national roll out of the FEMA QuakeSmart program.
Vice President
Teresa Soza
Teresa Soza has been with SAFE-T-PROOF™ from its humble beginnings in 1993 as its first employee and she has grown with it ever since. Always a strong representative of the disaster preparedness products sector, she began by assembling parts & products, moved up to product installation, and is the currently VP of Projects at SAFE-T-PROOF™ which oversees Fastening Services for hospital, laboratories, businesses, and homes. She has worked with many Fortune 50 companies, hundreds of hospitals, and leading life science companies. Over her career, Teresa has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment and a priceless amount of research, and is widely considered a pioneer of the industry.
Global Product Manager
Nathaniel Moore
Transitioning from a background in carpentry, Nathaniel joined the SAFE-T-PROOF™ team in 2021. Originally from the East Coast, he was eager to learn all about earthquakes and the nuances common to the industry surrounding it. He now finds himself educating his friends who grew up in earthquake country about preparing their homes and all the exciting history and facts he has learned about earthquakes. Since joining, Nathaniel successfully completed the first ever earthquake risk assessments of the contents of more than a dozen major California food banks. These assessments will help much needed grant money be allocated to food banks for earthquake preparation and retrofitting. Follow that, he was responsible for leading the launch of SAFE-T-PROOF™’s new state-of-the-art website as well as taken on several business development and marketing responsibilities.
Warehouse Supervisor/Accounting Clerk
Anna Mkrtchyan
Anna joined the SAFE-T- PROOF™ team as the accounting clerk and warehouse supervisor in 2021. A California native, she has successfully completed the SAFE-T- PROOF™ Fastening System Installation Training Program and has utilized these skills to educate consumers of the dangers of earthquakes. In her short time, she has created a SKU system that is designed to help current and future structural engineers and contractors to identify the right products to use in hospitals, laboratories, residences, and commercial buildings. She also helps to coordinate Quake Cottage events where consumers can ride the mobile earthquake simulator and experience what a major earthquake feels like while learning about the latest technology in preparedness. She is committed to the well-being of our clients, friends, and family.
Marketing & Business Development
Jon Taylor
After almost a decade in the military and in law enforcement, Jon is no stranger in risk assessment and disaster preparedness. He decided to take his passion for helping and serving others and focus on continuing that mission through a career at SAFE-T-PROOF™, which has the same mission. After earning several certifications, including his OSHA 510, Jon hopes to continue learning the ins and outs of disaster preparedness and eventually become an expert in the field. Always expanding his knowledge base of non-structural fastening and earthquake preparedness, he is passionate about sharing this knowledge with others.
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About Us
About Us
About Us
Michael Essrig
President & CEO
SAFE-T-PROOF™
"At SAFE-T-PROOF™ our mission is to save lives and secure property through innovative and elegantly engineered Earthquake Fastening Systems. By visiting our site, you've taken the first step in developing an action plan to help your family or company prepare. Our safety products are found in hundreds of schools, hospitals, Fortune 500 companies and homes throughout the world. Please browse our wide selection and contact us with any questions or needs you may have. We're always pleased to serve."
• Our Story
• Meet The Team
The SAFE-T-PROOF™ Way Of Life
SAFE-T-PROOF™ is committed to providing the most advanced earthquake preparation and fastening technologies available - ensuring the safety and well-being of our clients and friends. We realize the world is forever changing; natural disasters are continuing worldwide. If we, as a company and, more importantly, as human beings, can continue to help in preparing people for a safer future, then we are doing our job.
It's the SAFE-T-PROOF™ way of life. A leader in safety design & innovation with humble beginnings, SAFE-T-PROOF™ was founded by Michael Essrig in 1993 on the simple notion of protecting families from disaster related injuries and fatalities. A California native, Essrig remembered as a young boy experiencing the terror of the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake and barely escaping serious injury when all the furniture in the house started flying all over the place.
Birth of a Needed Service: Now a parent with two babies at home and a wife at work, he became frightened at what the next earthquake could do and decided it was time to be proactive instead of reactive. Essrig secured every piece of furniture in his house - installed safety latches on every cabinet and added an automatic gas shut-off valve. When he finished, he had peace of mind and that the idea that doing this for other people seemed to be a worthy and much needed service. He did his homework and – with a little encouragement from his friends – the company was born.
Real Test: Slowly but surely, the business expanded from preparing homes to servicing businesses, schools, and hospitals. All this hard work was put to the test on January 17, 1994. At 4:31 a.m. the ground shook and everything he had said and done was on the line. By the time the phones were back up, he knew he was in the right business. His phone began ringing off the hook with calls from clients thanking him for the preparations he had made. Everything he had fastened held and the emergency kits saved lives. However, he wasn’t quite ready for what came next.
Media Attention: The media picked up Michael's story and the phone calls - now 300 to 500 a day, seven days a week - became overwhelming! People lined up around the block waiting to buy fasteners and emergency supplies from his garage! His house was converted into a showroom and business soared from there. These humble beginnings launched SAFE-T-PROOF™ into what it is today: Now the leading disaster preparedness company of its kind, with services and products used and sold worldwide. SAFE-T-PROOF™ has since moved away from emergency supplies and food rations to focus exclusively on providing elegantly engineered solutions for fastening the contents of buildings – whether those be offices, labs, hospitals, or homes. These high-quality products provide safety for your loved ones and continuity for your business.
Pioneering Unique Awareness Campaigns: One of the world's first mobile earthquake simulators of its kind, the SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage utilizes realistic, intense earthquake-like motion and audio-visual elements to create an immersive experience of being in an earthquake without the danger. A powerful teaching and educational tool, the SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage can recreate the duration and intensity of shaking felt by people in parts of Loma Prieta near San Francisco during the 1989 (6.9 magnitude) earthquake or in parts of Los Angeles during the 1994 (6.7 magnitude) earthquake. These “rides,” only last approximately 30 seconds.
9.5 Magnitude Earthquake Experience, Anyone? Due to fault line size, Californians luckily will not experience earthquakes of much larger magnitude at home because, for the SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage to replicate a 9.5 magnitude earthquake, this degree of shaking would need to continue for more than 11 minutes! So far no one has volunteered to ride it for that long. The SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage has been featured on dozens of television programs and talk shows while educating the public on earthquakes, disaster preparedness, and fastening solutions for the home, office, and hospital. Winning the Western States Seismic Policy Council’s “Product of the Year” Award, the SAFE-T-PROOF™ Quake Cottage line now extends to clients such as the State of Alaska, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Navy.
Innovation: Additionally, SAFE-T-PROOF™ now features multiple “First Ever” products, such as the first earthquake cabinet latch: SeismoLatch. No wonder our company was recently named “One of the most innovative companies in the world”! (UPS)
Our Clients: Over the years, SAFE-T-PROOF™ has had the honor of serving hundreds of top-quality companies such as ARCO, AT&T, Boeing North America/Rocketdyne Division, USC, Cal-Tech University, Hewlett-Packard, MGM Studios, 20th Century Fox Studios, Walt Disney Studios, MCI WorldCom, NTT and Toshiba in Japan just to name a few. Dozens of California hospitals now use SAFE-T-PROOF™, including City of Hope National Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. SAFE-T-PROOF™ has been chosen widely in the life-science sector, with clients like Amgen, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson using our fasteners.
Trusted: We have also developed good working relationships with organizations such as HCAI (formerly OSHPD), FEMA, Cal-OES, ECA, CREW and CUSEC. Most striking is that the USGS and the American Red Cross have trusted SAFE-T-PROOF™ for the securing of the contents of their own buildings!
Not Only for California: Recent earthquakes and tragedies outside of California have motivated disaster preparedness education throughout the United States. Fasteners are being purchased from Alaska to Florida, and from New York to Guam. As personal preparedness spreads to a new cultural awareness – even being taught in elementary schools – the word is out, and many Americans are on a mission to create “Safer Spaces.”
About Us
Meet The Team
The Rest of the Team
The Team
Michael Essrig
President & CEO
SAFE-T-PROOF™
"At SAFE-T-PROOF™ our mission is to save lives and secure property through innovative and elegantly engineered Earthquake Fastening Systems. By visiting our site, you've taken the first step in developing an action plan to help your family or company prepare. Our safety products are found in hundreds of schools, hospitals, Fortune 500 companies and homes throughout the world. Please browse our wide selection and contact us with any questions or needs you may have. We're always pleased to serve."
Glen Granholm
Vice President
After a thirty-year career in management and marketing, Glen joined the SAFE-T- PROOF™ team in 2006. In the years since, he has grown to become a nationally-recognized expert in the field of an industry called “non-structural earthquake damage mitigation” or the securing of contents in buildings to keep things in place during an earthquake. Glen has been called upon to assist in the development of earthquake bracing protocols for statewide assisted living facilities and more than a dozen food distribution agencies, major universities, and Fortune 50 pharmaceutical companies. After playing a critical role in assisting the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank get awarded with more than $2 Million in grant dollars for the retrofit of their main campus, Glen was key in the national roll out of the FEMA QuakeSmart program.
About Us
Teresa Soza
Vice President
Teresa Soza has been with SAFE-T- PROOF™ from its humble beginnings in 1993 as its first employee and she has grown with it ever since. Always a strong representative of the disaster preparedness products sector, she began by assembling parts & products, moved up to product installation, and is the currently VP of Projects at SAFE-T- PROOF™ which oversees Fastening Services for hospital, laboratories, businesses, and homes. She has worked with many Fortune 50 companies, hundreds of hospitals, and leading life science companies. Over her career, Teresa has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment and a priceless amount of research, and is widely considered a pioneer of the industry.
About Us
Nathaniel Moore
Marketing & Business Development
Transitioning from a background in carpentry, Nathaniel joined the SAFE-T- PROOF™ team in 2021. Originally from the East Coast, he was eager to learn all about earthquakes and the nuances common to the industry surrounding it. He now finds himself educating his friends who grew up in earthquake country about preparing their homes and all the exciting history and facts he has learned about earthquakes. Since joining, Nathaniel successfully completed the first ever earthquake risk assessments of the contents of more than a dozen major California food banks. These assessments will help much needed grant money be allocated to food banks for earthquake preparation and retrofitting. Follow that, he was responsible for leading the launch of SAFE-T-PROOF™’s new state-of-the-art website as well as taken on several business development and marketing responsibilities.
About Us
Anna Mkrtchyan
Warehouse Supervisor/Accounting Clerk
Anna joined the SAFE-T- PROOF™ team as the accounting clerk and warehouse supervisor in 2021. A California native, she has successfully completed the SAFE-T- PROOF™ Fastening System Installation Training Program and has utilized these skills to educate consumers of the dangers of earthquakes. In her short time, she has created a SKU system that is designed to help current and future structural engineers and contractors to identify the right products to use in hospitals, laboratories, residences, and commercial buildings. She also helps to coordinate Quake Cottage events where consumers can ride the mobile earthquake simulator and experience what a major earthquake feels like while learning about the latest technology in preparedness. She is committed to the well-being of our clients, friends, and family.