01 June 2008

Fire rages through Universal backlot



A massive fire swept through Universal Studios Hollywood today, destroying The Back to the Future Courthouse, and damaging the clock tower from the same movie and the King Kong Exhibit. The fire also destroyed three blocks of the New York City Street facades and the town used by the CBS series The Ghost Whisperer.

Roughly 40,000 to 50,000 videos and reels were in the video vault, but there are duplicates stored in a different location, said Ron Meyer, NBC Universal president and chief operating officer, so nothing irreplaceable was lost. No actual films prints were lost.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, and no initial damage estimates were given.

In 1990, a fire broke out on a Universal lot. During that event, Santa Ana winds were instrumental in the overwhelming damage done to the New York Street facades. That particular blaze was ruled as arson. The 1990 blaze resulted in more than $50 million in damage and required a major undertaking to rebuild each of the sets.

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