On the morning of June 25, 1914, a blaze broke out in Salem, Massachusetts, that would ultimately destroy over 1,300 buildings and reshape early American fire safety legislation. The disaster began in the industrial district near the Korn Leather Factory and the Salem Platter Works, where celluloid—an early synthetic plastic derived from nitrocellulose and camphor—was heavily utilized for manufacturing waterproof goods, shoe heels, and decorative platter coatings. Celluloid was notoriously volatile, decomposing rapidly when stored in hot, unventilated spaces and off-gassing highly flammable nitrous compounds.
Unknown to municipal inspectors, the Salem Platter Works had accumulated hundreds of pounds of degraded celluloid scrap inside an unvented basement storage compartment during a warm summer spell. When a small electrical spark ignited nearby chemical solvents, the heat instantly triggered a violent thermal explosion in the celluloid vault. The sudden pressure wave blew out the factory walls, spraying liquid flame across adjacent wooden structures and causing a uncontrollable firestorm that consumed whole districts within hours.