From the 1890s to 1952, the film industry produced motion pictures using highly flammable nitrate film stock. This decision often proved costly and fatal. Several incidents of nitrate fires resulted in human casualties and loss of cinematic heritage. Let’s look at a few of the most devastating nitrate film disasters in history.
Nitrate Spontaneously Combusts
Cellulose nitrate is a transparent plastic once used as the base for film stock. The problem with nitrate film is that it spontaneously combusts at high temperatures. The more decayed the nitrate, the lower its flash point. As nitrate deteriorates, it releases noxious gases. Those gases build up pressure when stored in a metal container or vault. As the pressure reaches its peak, nitrate goes kaboom. Since it’s flammable AF, Eastman Kodak phased it out by 1952 in favor of cellulose acetate, or safety film. In my previous post, This Film is on Fire: Nitrate Film in Archives, I delve into the nitty-gritty regarding nitrate decay and ignition, as well as how archivists deal with these dangerous films.
Loss of Cinematic Heritage
Film history is a primary casualty of nitrate film disasters. When nitrate decays and self-ignites, it destroys the images on the film stock’s emulsion. Unless the films are duplicated elsewhere, we lose major pieces of cinema history. It’s devastating to realize we will never watch some films again because they simply no longer exist.
Silent films are the most affected. According to archivist David Pierce, only a small percentage of an estimated 11,000 silent movies created between 1912 and 1929 have survived. There are several reasons for this. Film studios often destroyed or copied over silent films because executives didn’t believe they were commercially valuable. They also didn’t want to pay for storage costs.1
Additionally, studios didn’t want to risk keeping dangerous nitrate. Nitrate film disasters were frequent in the early years of cinema. As a result, studios often destroyed their nitrate film at the first sign of deterioration.2
Nitrate film disasters have destroyed millions of feet of film. Major losses include all Spanish Civil War films, all pre-1951 films from one of Egypt’s major studios, films in Canada’s National Film Board Archives, cinema collections in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, silent Swedish films, films at Cinematheque Française, and millions of feet of Universal outtakes.3
Film history isn’t nitrate’s only casualty. Occasionally, nitrate fires destroy humans.
Nitrate Film Disasters: La Bazar de la Charité, 1897
The year is 1897. The Bazar de la Charité, an upper-class charity for the destitute, is on Rue Jean Goujon. Parisian aristocrats are in attendance, including Sophie Charlotte, the Duchess of Alençon and sister of the Empress of Austria.
Boutique stalls and gaming booths are a staple of the annual bazaar. This year, they’re arranged in the gallery of a temporary wooden building. Paper mâché adorns the stall fronts to give the ambiance of old Paris. Although the theme is Paris in times past, modernity has become part of the entertainment. The cinematograph, used to project film, is making its debut.
On May 4, the bourgeoisie made their way into a makeshift theater next to the gallery of shops. Cinema was born just two years prior, in 1895, so the screening is a first for many. The projection on the screen is magnificent, and viewers experience the magic of movies. The light source is a lamp of ether and oxygen, but the operator, Bellac, realizes the projection’s brightness is starting to dim. It’s time to refuel with ether.
Between 4:05 and 4:15 pm, Bellac attempts to pour more ether into his tank but has trouble seeing in the darkness. He turns to fellow operator Bagrachow, asking for some light. Bagrachow lights a match. Suddenly, the flame ignites the liquid ether. Within minutes, the drapes hanging from the building’s roof are aflame. The fire rages fast and hot, further propelled by the nitrate film that has also combusted.
Fire Engulfs the Bazaar
The entire roof becomes a blanket of hot flames. As the theater becomes an inferno, members of the audience yell “Fire!” and panic ensues. There’s a mad dash to the theater’s one exit, but the mass of bodies creates a bottleneck. There are between 1000-1500 people at the bazaar that day, most of whom are women. Even those not in the theater are in danger because the fire has quickly spread to the rest of the building.
The ceiling of flames comes down, engulfing the bazaar’s papier mâché storefronts and the building walls. The scene is utter chaos. People are alight with flames, becoming human torches. Others are trampled to death.
The daughter of painter M. Jean Raffaelli falls in her escape, finding herself underneath desperate feet running for an exit. She feels a sharp pain as a heel imprints into her back. Her mother turns back and tries to pull her up, but she exclaims, “It is useless; save yourself, as I shall die in any case.” Her mother does not accept these words and is ready to die with her daughter. As fate would have it, they both escape, although not without serious injury.4
The Injured
Survivors spill onto the streets, painting Paris red with fire and blood. Women come out screaming, hair and clothes in flames. Their faces are burning. Others are shoeless and wear the remnants of their charred dresses. As help arrives, the injured are sent to Hôtel du Palais and Hôpital Beaujon.
The cries of the survivors compete with the screams of the dying trapped in the bazaar. Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze, to no avail. The flames will not yield. At 4:55 PM, the roof collapses, trapping about 100 unfortunate souls inside. At half past 5 PM, the fire finally dies down, mostly due to the building being in a state of smoldering ruins.
The Dead
The death toll amounts to 126, with many more injured. The charred and blackened bodies of the deceased are moved and identified at Palais de l’Industrie on Champs-Élysées. Some bodies are unidentifiable. Cries of grief and anguish fill the air as the mass of dead bodies forms a macabre and horrific scene. All of Paris is mourning.
60 or so victims are aristocratic women holding titles of duchess, baroness, and countess. Duchess Sophie Charlotte of Bavaria is so burnt she’s only identified by jewels, fabric, and dental records. Among the dead are the Marquise de Bouthillier Chavigny, Countess d’Hunolstein, Baroness Elisabeth Caruel de Saint-Martin, and Viscountess Marie de Bonneval. General Munier, a distinguished military hero, also perishes in the flames. Madame Flores, the wife of the Spanish Consul, dies at the hospital from her injuries. Countess Villeneuve went back inside the burning building to look for her daughters, but none of them came out alive.
The Role of Nitrate
While the source of the fire was a lit match next to highly flammable ether, the nitrate film in the cinematograph made it worse. As Mark Gossamer notes, nitrate “contributed to the explosivity and uncontrollability of the blaze” and “helped an already burning fire become a rampage.”5 When cellulose nitrate ignites, it releases oxygen, which continues to feed the fire. Nitrate, in essence, is self-sustaining and self-fueling. Therefore, it’s virtually impossible to extinguish.
After the 1897 fire, French scientific minds began discussing ways to stop film fires. They researched how to make the film stock’s base nonflammable. In 1899, Eastman Kodak began discussing cellulose acetate, which they eventually introduced as safety film in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, nitrate film disasters continued well after Kodak discontinued manufacturing nitrate film stock, as you’ll see below.
Nitrate Film Disasters: Fox Film Corporation, New Jersey, 1937
It’s 1935. A new building is constructed in Little Ferry, New Jersey. Its sole purpose is to store 40,000 cans of motion picture film for Fox Film Corporation. The films, made of cellulose nitrate, range from about 5 to 25 years old. Each reel has its own little home in the form of a standard metal container. Since there are so many, Fox builds 46 separate vaults to accommodate them. Each vault stores up to 1,000 reels of film, but they’re only filled to 80% capacity at this point.
All seems well with this newly built structure, except none of the vaults have a mechanical ventilation system or an automatic sprinkler. What could possibly go wrong?
Film Up in Flames
July 9, 1937, is a hot summer day, going up to 100° F. At 2 AM, something catches the eye of a truck driver passing the Fox storage facility. He sees flames shooting out of a window vent. Without delay, he notifies the authorities. He starts yelling, waking the residents of nearby buildings and alerting them to the blaze.
Get out, the fire is spreading!
Families living at 361 Main Street, a building in front of the storage structure, hear his shouts. They make their escape in their pajamas. A man who lives at 353 Main Street is helping the families of 361 escape. He thinks his wife and two sons escaped their home with him but soon realizes they’re still inside.
In seconds, he sees them running out of the building, trying to cross the street to escape the flames. His wife stumbles and falls. His 13-year-old son stops in his tracks and doubles back to help her up.
At the same moment, the gases from the nitrate film, which have been building up in pressure, reach a critical point. They explode, causing flames to shoot out from a window. The son shields his mother as they’re engulfed in flames. The other son, who never made it across the street, is also burned by the explosion.
The Devastation of Nitrate
The Little Ferry Fire Department cannot handle the blaze on its own. The fire chief calls nearby towns for assistance. Meanwhile, the fire is raging. Flames are shooting out into the distance by at least 100 feet. The nitrate gases cause more explosions. More help arrives. In total, seven fire companies work to subdue the blaze. There are 150 men on the scene, using three pumping engines, two hose carts, two hook and ladder trucks, and 14 hoses. It’s a formidable force, but it’s not enough to stop nitrate. In fact, seven similar fires have broken out in the past 10 years at facilities storing nitrate films. The fires were always during the summer months when there was a heat wave.
At around 5:30 AM, the fire finally burns itself out. It leaves devastation in its wake. The fire damages the entire storage building, with walls blown out from explosions. All 40,000 reels of film are destroyed.
There is one human casualty. The brave 13-year-old boy who went back to save his mom, whose body acted as a shield to cover hers, is so severely burned that he dies ten days later on July 19. Fortunately, his mother and brother survived with second and third-degree burns.
Nitrate Film Disasters: New York City & New Jersey, 1949
It’s a hot summer in New York City. It’s one of those summers when the sweat pours down your face and you can fry an egg on the sidewalk. The temperature reaches a blistering 98° F. There’s also a drought, with rainfall reaching record-breaking lows. It’s so hot and dry that nitrate motion picture films start to self-ignite. Studio warehouses and processing/reclamation plants throughout the city and across the river in New Jersey go up in smoke.
On June 18, shortly after 10 AM, firefighters respond to an explosion in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Progress Films, Inc.’s motion picture warehouse is ablaze. One hundred firemen try to tame the beast. Although no one perishes, the fire damages the building and destroys the films. The official cause of the fire is heat during the recent drought.
The scene in Woodbridge repeats itself numerous times that summer. There are no human casualties, but the loss to film is great. Original negatives and master copies, some of silent movies, are lost to the flames.
Experimenting with Nitrate Film
The fires pique the interest of the National Archives and Bureau of Standards, which have been working on nitrate care and storage since the 1930s. They investigate the 1949 fires and determine that they resulted from deteriorated nitrate film spontaneously combusting. Their discovery prompts further testing by the Fire Protection Section of the National Bureau of Standards. They want to know if spontaneous ignition can be expected with decaying nitrate film. If so, at what temperature?
They test decaying films. Some burst into flames at 106° F, others at 120° F. By 1950, they still didn’t have the answer to the lowest temperature causing self-ignition. But, they concluded nitrate film in good condition doesn’t spontaneously combust.6
1949 Nitrate Fire Takeaways
Archivist Heather Heckman states we must take this investigation with a grain of salt. She notes that the National Bureau of Standards used questionable methodologies and conducted poorly controlled experiments.7 The takeaway is that scientists and the government took notice of the 1949 fires because nitrate caused so much film loss. They continued experimenting with flash points and storage conditions, developing guidelines to prevent nitrate film disasters.
Nitrate Film Disasters: National Archives and Records Services, Maryland, 1978
It’s the early 1970s. Universal Pictures and the National Archives and Records Service (NARS) are negotiating a film donation.8 Since the donation includes millions of reels of nitrate, they agree to make improvements to the storage buildings that will house the film. The government storage complex in Suitland, Maryland, includes three concrete cinderblock bunkers. Buildings A and C are used by NARS, while Building B is occupied by the Library of Congress.
The General Services Administration (GSA) built the structures in 1945 to store highly flammable nitrate. They upgrade the buildings in preparation for the donation, installing a high-speed sprinkler system and adding new fire doors to the vaults. They finish the work by 1973.
It’s now 1977, and a small fire breaks out in Building C, destroying 800,000 feet of the “March of Time” newsreel footage. GSA decides to upgrade the HVAC (heating-ventilation-air conditioning) systems in the buildings. As the contractors work, they disable a third of Building A’s sprinklers.
Building A is on Fire
It’s noon on December 7, 1978, and the employees of NARS sit down to eat lunch. They’re in the offices of Building A. As the staff eat, they hear a “thumping” sound. A supervisor gets up to investigate. He peers out into the hallway and sees smoke. He yells, “Fire!” and everyone evacuates in a hurry. Before the fire department even gets onto the scene, the nitrate film stored in the building explodes. Twice.9
The Fire Spreads
Firefighters respond within minutes, working on subduing the blaze. Four of them bravely make their way inside Building A to determine if any staff are trapped inside. During their search, they open fireproof doors. Thankfully, no one is inside. Because they leave doors open in their search and as they rush to safety when exiting, the flames spread.
The firemen start exiting the building, but there’s another explosion on their way out. As a result, an interior wall falls over and two firemen are hurt. Twelve firefighters were later treated for smoke inhalation. At least six more explosions occur before the blaze is out.
All photographs from: Records Relating to the Nitrate Film Vault Fire at Suitland, Maryland, 1978-1979; Records of the National Archives and Records Administration 1789-ca.2007, Record Group 64, National Archives at College Park.
Film Lost to the Fire
The nitrate fire destroyed 12.6 million feet of historical newsreel footage and outtakes dating from 1929-1951. The film is part of Universal Pictures’ donation to NARS, which comprises 28 million feet. Nitrate film reels make up 17 million feet, while safety film accounts for 11 million. NARS was converting the nitrate to safety film when the fire broke out.
Cause of the Fire
So, what caused the fire? If you recall, the GSA was making improvements to the storage complex after the 1977 fire. The U.S. government says the contractors working in building A caused the 1978 fire with their power tools. On December 7th, they used drills and blowtorches, causing sparks. The contractors and fire department said no…the fire was a result of the old air conditioning malfunctioning. They stated that the temperature and humidity increased so much that the nitrate spontaneously combusted. Either way, the nitrate went boom, destroying film reels in 21 out of 27 vaults.
Nitrate Film Disasters: George Eastman Museum, 1978
May 30, 1978, is a scary day for the George Eastman Museum. Around 3:30 PM, motion picture rolls made of nitrate self-ignite. The cinderblock building they’re being stored in is soon in flames. Firefighters arrive on the scene, but the fire spreads rapidly, and the heat is intense. Battalion Fire Chief Anthony Infantolino sounds a second alarm for more help.
The fire moves to three other buildings. A 60-foot-long equipment shed and a smaller shed go up in smoke. A two-story barn is also on fire. It houses a valuable collection of still photographs. None of these buildings has fire alarms or sprinklers. Nitrate gases cause a few explosions are the fire rages on.
327 original negatives of early feature films and cartoons ignite. The flames take “Boys Town,” starring Spencer Tracey, and “Strike Up the Band,” starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. The negatives are sitting ducks. Packed up, they’re awaiting shipment to a lab so they can be transferred onto safety film. Ironic. They never reach their destination.
An Edward Weston print valued at $1,000 is lost. Firefighters save dozens of cases of still photographs from the barn.
The museum itself and the Dryden Theater are saved from damage, and there are no human casualties. The loss of film heritage is not as bad as originally thought. Luckily, MGM had donated the 327 original negatives and has print copies. Museum officials initially believed they lost 100,000 unique films and photographs, including footage of comedian Buster Keaton. Thankfully, they were spared from the flames.
Present-Day Nitrate Screenings
If you believe all these nitrate film disasters have deterred anyone from projecting old motion pictures, think again. Each year since 2015, the George Eastman Museum has held the Nitrate Picture Show, a festival of film conservation. They screen nitrate prints from Eastman’s collection and international archives. In a fun twist, the festival only announces the film titles on the first day of the festival. The audience is unaware of the title of the last screening until the moment it plays. Archivists also give lectures on film preservation, providing an educational component to a magical night of viewing vintage motion pictures. This year’s show will run from May 29 to June 1, 2025.
To learn more about nitrate and my encounter with it as a professional archivist, read my blog post This Film is on Fire: Nitrate Film in Archives.
You can also check out the following books to learn more about nitrate film and film preservation. I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
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Footnotes
- Pierce, The Survival, 5-7. ↩︎
- Pierce, The Survival, 5-7; Vaughan, “Restoring Old Films,” 29-30. ↩︎
- Heckman, “Burn After Viewing,” 484; Daley, “Forty Years Ago,” 2018. ↩︎
- New York Times, “The Paris Dead List,” 1897. ↩︎
- Gossamer, “La Bazar,” 73. ↩︎
- Cummings, “Spontaneous Ignition,” 1950. ↩︎
- Hestman, “Burn After Viewing,” 498. ↩︎
- NARS is now the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). ↩︎
- Smith, “Disaster Strikes,” 2018. ↩︎
Bibliography & Further Reading
Primary Sources
Charmetant, Félix. Livre d’or des martyrs de la charité, hommage aux victimes de la catastrophe du 4 mai 1897. Paris: Bureau des oeuvres d’Orient, 1897.
Committee on Government Operations. Subcommittee on Government Information and Individual Rights., National Archives and Records Service film-vault fire at Suitland, Md: hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, first session, June 19 and 21, 1979, H.R. Doc. No. Ninety-Sixth, First (1979).
Cummings, James W., Alvin C. Hutton, and Howard Silfin. “Spontaneous Ignition of Decomposing Cellulose Nitrate Film.” Journal of SMPTE 54 (March 1950).
Le Petit Journal. Supplément du dimanche (Paris), May 5, 1897.
New York Times. “The Paris Dead List: Many Burned to Ashes Besides the Bodies Taken from the Ruins of the Charity Bazaar. Austrian Empress Mourns for the Duchesse D’Alencon. Mayor Strong’s Niece the Only Person Who Escaped From the Duchesse’s Box – Estimated That Half of the 1,200 Present Escaped Unhurt.” May 6, 1897.
New York Times. “Film Warehouse Burned.” June 19, 1949.
New York Times. “Buster Keaton Films Destroyed in Rochester Fire: Staff Helps Save Other Film.” May 30, 1978.
New York Times. “Fire Loss at Film Museum Less Than Was Feared.” May 31, 1978.
New York Times. “Archives’ Old Newsreels Are Destroyed by Fire.” December 8, 1978.
Schedule Rating Office of N.J. “Fox Film Storage Fire.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, October 1937, 136-42.
New York Times. Fire Horror in Paris: Over 200 Lives Lost in a Bazaar Where the Duchesse D’Uzes Presided. General Meunier a Victim. The Duchesse D’Alencon, A Sister of the Empress of Austria, Reported Missing. M. Faure Sees the Dead in the Palais De L’Industrie. Several Bodies Identified as Those of Titled People – Families Distracted by the Inability to Find Relatives and Friends.” May 5, 1897.
Secondary Sources
*Several of the following links are Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no cost to you.
Daley, Jason. “Forty Years Ago, 12.6 Million Feet of History Went up in Smoke.” Smithsonian Magazine, December 7, 2018.
Heckman, Heather. “Burn After Viewing, or, Fire in the Vaults: Nitrate Decomposition and Combustibility.” The American Archivist 73 (Fall/Winter 2010): 483-506.
George Eastman Museum. “The Nitrate Picture Show.” Eastman Museum. Accessed November 7, 2024.
Mark, Gosser H. “The Bazar de la Charité Fire: The Reality, the Aftermath, the Telling.” Film History 10, no. 1 (1998): 70-89.
National Film Preservation Center. The Film Preservation Guide: The Basics for Archives, Libraries, and Museums. San Francisco: National Film Preservation Foundation, 2004.
Pierce, David. The Survival of American Silent Feature Films, 1912-1929. Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress, 2013.
Smith, Andrew. “Disaster Strikes the National Archives: The 1978 Nitrate Vault Fire.” The Unwritten Record (National Archives and Records Administration blog), December 4, 2018.
Smither, Roger, and Catherine A. Surowiec, eds. This Film is Dangerous: A Celebration of Nitrate Film. FIAF, 2002.
Vaughan, Don. “Restoring Old Films is Both Difficult and Expensive, But Well Worth the Price.” Saturday Evening Post, January/February 2024, 28-33.
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