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Fire Destroys Universal Sets, Videos

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The Associated Press

Published: June 2, 2008

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - King Kong's roar was silenced, and Marty McFly won't be going back to the future anytime soon.

A huge fire raged through a lot at Universal Studios on Sunday and destroyed some of Hollywood's most familiar backdrops, including the courthouse square from "Back to the Future" and a streetscape featured in "Bruce Almighty," "Spiderman 2" and "Transformers."

It was the second fire at the historic site in nearly two decades, leveling facades, hollowing out buildings and creating the kind of catastrophe filmmakers relish re-creating. This time around, thousands of videos chronicling Universal's movie and TV shows were destroyed in the blaze.

But Universal officials said they were thankful no one was seriously injured at the theme park and that the damaged footage can be replaced.

"We have duplicates of everything," said NBC Universal President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Meyer.

Meyer estimated there were 40,000 to 50,000 videos and reels in a video vault that burned but said duplicates were stored in a different location. Firefighters managed to recover hundreds of titles.

The videos included every film that Universal has produced and footage from television series, including "Miami Vice" and "I Love Lucy."

The blaze broke out on a soundstage featuring New York brownstone facades around 4:30 a.m., Los Angeles County Fire Chief Michael Freeman said. The fire was contained to the lot but burned for 12 hours before the flames were extinguished.

The cause of the fire at the 400-acre property is under investigation. Damage was expected to be in the millions of dollars.

Along with the courthouse square, the famous clock tower used to help send Michael J. Fox's character through time was damaged, fire officials said. Two mock New York and New England streets used for moviemaking and as tourist displays were a total loss, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Darryl Jacobs said.

An 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.

NBC Universal said it would reopen the theme park this morning.

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