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Seriously, if you find nitrate film, DO NOT PROJECT IT, even if it appears to be in good shape. Even if your theatre originally had a nitrate-certified booth, it's likely some of the required safety equipment has been removed or disabled. To reinforce the danger, take another look at Rick Shamel's nitrate fire videos in the "Videos" section.
http://www.filmpreservation.org/basics_nitrate.html
http://www.clevelandclinic.org/act/frames/chp3/chp3_1.htm

If the film is in good condition and you can identify the content, contact some of the established film archives to see if they are interested in preserving the material:
http://www.amianet.org/11_Information/Information.html
http://www.geocities.com/soho/square/5632/nitrate.html

If a film archive wants the material, they will work with you on how to properly (legally) package and ship the film to meet all (DOT) regulations.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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Temperature:
4°C (39°F) +/-1°C on a daily basis
4°C (39°F) +/-1°C on an annual basis

Humidity:
50% +/-2% RH on a daily basis
50% +/-5% RH on an annual basis

[Source: FIAF Preservation Commission, Preservation of Moving Images and Sound, 1st ed., September 1989, p. 24.]

Domestic fridges can certainly deliver the temperature, but judging by how often I need to switch mine off to defrost it, I'd guess that the humidity is way above 50% RH. Freezing film elements for preservation is done by some archives, though (not many because of the cost). For example, the Imperial War Museum in London freezes original colour elements to inhibit dye fading.

Another British example is the Mitchell and Kenyon collection, some 800 reels of nitrate dating from the turn of the last century, which were kept by their owner in (I've been told) domestic deep freeze units until the British Film Institute recently acquired them and started to make polyester preservation dupes. The quality is stunning.

But no, I wouldn't want to keep nitrate in the same fridge as my food, either. Quite apart from anything else, all those off-gases would make the beer taste pretty horrid...

quote:

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Look at the edge area If it doesn't say SAFETY FILM it is safeer to assume nitrate

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But if it says 'safety' do not automatically assume that it isn't nitrate, especially if you can see both 'nitrate' and 'safety' (or 'S') marks between the perforations and the edge of the film. It is possible for footage to be originated on safety negative stock, or duplicated through safety intermediate stock, and then printed onto a nitrate release print. This is especially true of newsreels, where portable cameras were often used which needed to be taken into places where nitrate would not have been safe (e.g. on aircraft or other enclosed spaces). It also holds true for 35mm feature film elements used around the time of the conversion process (roughly 1948-52), because some cinema chains held out for nitrate, requesting nitrate prints from exchanges and labs, until the base was completely withdrawn. This was because they still believed that nitrate was significantly more durable than the new triacetate. So again, a film originated on safety negative could have had nitrate release prints made.