Fire strikes Universal Studios lot
'It looked like a disaster film,' LA official says
LOS ANGELES - A massive fire swept through the Universal Studios back lot in Universal City yesterday, destroying a soundstage, several sets, and a vault containing about 40,000 duplicate videos and film reels.
The fire covered the equivalent of two city blocks on the 400-acre property, and a cloud of smoke rose thousands of feet into the air. It took about 400 firefighters more than 12 hours to extinguish it.
The damaged sets included the Courthouse Square seen in "Back to the Future" and the New York street that was used in the 1987 "Dragnet" film and "Bruce Almighty." The Universal theme park's King Kong attraction was destroyed.
The fire broke out about 4:30 a.m. along a street of New York brownstone facades on the back lot. It was contained later in the morning but continued to burn into the afternoon.
Several firefighters suffered minor injuries. One firefighter and a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy were slightly hurt when a pressurized cylinder exploded inside the building housing the videos.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Damage was expected to be in the millions of dollars.
Firefighting helicopters and cranes were used to dump water on the burning movie streets. "It looked like a disaster film," said Los Angeles City Councilor Tom LaBonge.
Fire officials said they were hampered by low water pressure, and crews had to draw water from ponds and lakes on the back lot. They also brought in a 6,000-gallon water tender.
The flames tore through a cavernous, two-story video vault containing about 40,000 videos and copies of television shows and movies, some dating to the 1920s. Universal officials said the archived films were copies and no original works had been lost.
"We have duplicates of everything," said Ron Meyer, president of NBC Universal. "Nothing is lost forever." Firefighters were able to recover several hundred of the titles.
The videos in the vault included every film that Universal has produced as well as television series such as "Miami Vice" and "I Love Lucy."
Universal Studios, 9 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, includes a theme park and a back lot where movies and television shows are filmed.
The fire destroyed the courthouse square from "Back to the Future," and the famous clock tower that enabled Michael J. Fox's character to travel through time was damaged, fire officials said.
Two mock New York and New England streets used both for movie-making and as tourist displays were a total loss, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Darryl Jacobs said. The exhibit housing a mechanically animated King Kong that bellows at visitors on a tram also was destroyed.
All three sites were either damaged or destroyed during another fire at Universal Studios in November 1990. That fire caused $25 million in damage and was started by a security guard who was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to arson.
The park was closed all day yesterday, but hundreds of visitors waited for hours outside the gates, where acrid smoke lingered. On a typical weekend day, about 25,000 people visit Universal Studios. NBC Universal said later in the day that the park would reopen this morning.
The MTV Movie Awards show, broadcast live last night from the adjacent Gibson Amphitheater, went on as planned.
P. Michael Freeman, the Los Angeles County fire chief, said the Universal theme park had installed a large-scale sprinkler system after a 1990 blaze, but it apparently didn't work adequately yesterday. "It appears the fire this morning overwhelmed fire protection features," Freeman said. "We're going to readily and quickly reevaluate that."
The 1990 fire raged over more than 4 acres of the back lot, destroying many of the same sets that burned this time. It also burned the "Dick Tracy" building and the "Ben Hur" set.
One of the streetscapes that burned yesterday had recently served as a backdrop in such films as "Bruce Almighty," and television shows including "Monk," "Crossing Jordan" and "House," said NBC Universal spokeswoman Cindy Gardner.
Officials said yesterday's fire was able to spread so fast in part because the studio sets were made of timber. "Big lumber causes a big fire," Jacobs said, noting that some of the soundstages date to the 1930s and '40s.
The giant column of black smoke from the fire drifted over surrounding neighborhoods. Fire officials said they didn't believe air quality would pose a health hazard to the public. Air-quality officials had not been notified of any hazards from the fire.
One air-pollution risk from the motion-picture industry is perchloroethylene, which was used for cleaning film until it was replaced with less toxic cleansers.
Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.
