Peavey Marts across Canada will be updating their store safety policies after a 12-year-old boy was locked in a gun safe in Saskatoon for roughly 20 minutes on Monday afternoon.

Jest Sidloski, the retail chain's director of customer experience, said his understanding is the boy entered the safe and then a sibling closed the door behind him.

People on site tried to open it, but used the wrong code, causing the lock to time out. The safe itself was 59.5 inches (151 centimetres) tall, 27 inches (68 centimetres) deep and 42 inches (106 centimetres) wide.

Members of the Saskatoon Fire Department were called to the 51st Street store at around 1:20 p.m. CST. When they arrived, the boy was "conscious and alert," said acting assistant fire chief Yvonne Raymer.

"The crew was able to talk to the child through the safe and realized the child was not being compromised," she said.

Fire crews started cutting the hinges of the safe using an angle grinder, but when staff entered the correct code it worked.

The boy was not injured.

Raymer said the call for the rescue was "unique" for the Saskatoon Fire Department, but said its rescue crews were well equipped to handle the situation.

After the incident, a memo updating store policies was sent to more than 90 Peavey Mart locations across the country, according to Sidloski.

"We've never had something like that happen," he said "We take it very seriously."

Changes include ensuring safes are locked open and removing the batteries from digital safes to ensure the keypad cannot be used.

Further instructions were also distributed for different models of safes.