Flammable nitrate film had previously contributed to several fires in film-industry laboratories, studios and vaults, although the precise causes were often unknown.

In Little Ferry, gases produced by decaying film, combined with high temperatures and inadequate ventilation, resulted in spontaneous combustion.

Nitrate film can spontaneously combust, but considerable uncertainty exists about the circumstances necessary for self-ignition, partly because of wide variation in the production of early stock.

Most such fires in film archives have occurred during summer heat waves and in closed facilities with limited ventilation, compounding several of these variables.

The Lubin Manufacturing Company's vault in Philadelphia exploded on June 13, 1914, followed on December 9 by a fire that destroyed Thomas Edison's laboratory complex in West Orange, New Jersey.

[4][5] The United Film Ad Service vault, also in Kansas City, burned on August 4, 1928, and a fire was reported at Pathé Exchange nine days later.

[1] Earlier in the 20th century, nearby Fort Lee on the Hudson Palisades was home to many film studios of America's first motion picture industry.

The sustained heat contributed to nitrate decomposition in the film vaults, and the building's ventilation was inadequate to prevent a dangerous buildup of gases.

[10][11] As the contents of additional vaults ignited, bursts of flame erupted 100 feet (30 m) horizontally across the ground from the windows and at a similar distance into the air from the building's roof vents.

Motion picture historian Anthony Slide called the destruction of the Fox vault "the most tragic" American nitrate fire.

[9] Films lost to the fire include those featuring stars such as Theda Bara, Shirley Mason, William Farnum and Gladys Brockwell.

[16] Director J. Gordon Edwards had directed all of the highest-grossing epics for Fox, and all of the masters for his films were lost (although a few that were housed elsewhere survive as low-quality prints).

Also destroyed were the original negative of D. W. Griffith's Way Down East (which Fox had purchased in order to remake),[9] the negative for the controversial Christie Productions sponsored film The Birth of a Baby[20] and films produced by Sol Lesser under his imprints Atherton Productions, Peck's Bad Boy Corporation and Principal Pictures.