Universal Studios Fire
(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
I woke up this morning to a giant, smelly plume of smoke blotting out the sun. Turns out it was a huge fire at Universal Studios that had begun at about 4:45 am.
Some sets that will be familiar to anyone who has ever turned on the television and certainly anyone who has ever taken the Universal Studios Tour, including New York Street (Seinfeld), Brownstone Street (The Sting), Courthouse Square (To Kill a Mockingbird, Back to the Future) and the building housing the tour’s King Kong exhibit were destroyed.
A video vault, which is still burning as of this writing, was also destroyed but in a press conference, Universal CEO Ron Meyer indicated no original film or video elements were destroyed and that anything lost was replaceable.
The cause of the fire is unkown.
At least four firefighters were treated for minor burns or heat exhaustion, but no other injuries were reported.
Plans are to open the theme park portion of the studio at 12 pm.
Filed under: News
Tags: Universal Studios
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Dang. That tour is absolutely thrilling for film fans, so says I. The Courthouse Square, Old West, War of Worlds were my favorite parts. I hope they rebuild the damaged areas, but man, some of that magic might be gone forever.
I’m sure the facades will be rebuilt. All in all, it sounds like it could’ve been a lot worse than it was.
Still, a lot of the old Hollywood backlots have been torn down or sold off so it’s a little disconcerting to see one of the links to the past threatened like that.
That sucks.
Yeah, that is disappointing news indeed.
I did that tour too… Oh well, at least I’m glad no actual movies were destroyed.