Fire at Universal Studios

[Brent]

Wisteria Lane Survives More Drama, Ghost Whisperer Not as Lucky

Jovie Baclayon Sun Jun 1, 12:21 PM ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Wisteria Lane has survived tornadoes, catfights and now, raging infernos.

An ABC representative for the hit series Desperate Housewives tells E! News that there is "no damage to Wisteria Lane" from Sunday morning's massive blaze at the Universal Studios backlot, despite earlier rumors. The show's infamous neighborhood is housed on the property.

However, CBS' Ghost Whisperer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, may not have fared as well. A press executive for the studio tells E! News, "Preliminary reports say just two exterior sets were damaged."

They haven't received the full report yet but do not think the damage is extensive enough to delay production on the show.

Neither Universal's Citywalk nor theme park were damaged, but the park was shut down for the day. The MTV Movie Awards, hosted by Mike Meyers, is scheduled to go on as planned Sunday night at 5 p.m. in Universal's Gibson Amphitheater.

At least 400 firefighters were called in to quench the at times 100-foot-high flames, which broke out around 4:45 a.m. and tore through a soundstage and several buildings and famous movie sets.

The King Kong exhibit, New York and New England streetscapes, television film vault and iconic Back to the Future set were extensively damaged. Four firefighters were also injured, although not severely.

Crews are bulldozing demolished buildings and heavy smoke continues to pour out of the fire, eight hours after it started.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/2008060 ... Z1gVZpMhkF

[JonathanBelles]

I wonder what they would have done if Wisteria Lane had been hit.

[Ed Mahmoud]

I wonder what they would have done if Wisteria Lane had been hit.

I think it is just facades. Building shells. Build a new one, in about a week, using old footage as a guide. DH is on summer hiatus anyway, aren't they?



Too bad Mrs. Parker won't be on national TV courtside at the not meant to be San Antonio-Celtics series.

[Brent]

I wonder what they would have done if Wisteria Lane had been hit.

I think it is just facades. Building shells. Build a new one, in about a week, using old footage as a guide. DH is on summer hiatus anyway, aren't they?



Too bad Mrs. Parker won't be on national TV courtside at the not meant to be San Antonio-Celtics series.

Yep, until sometime in July.

A lot of the street is real houses though, used in previous TV shows and movies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisteria_Lane

[CajunMama]

Universal Studios fire sparked by blow torch
By Steve Gorman
12 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A fire that burned through a large swath of the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot during the weekend was accidentally sparked by workers using heating tools on a film set, fire officials said on Monday.

The blaze erupted before dawn on Sunday in a portion of the lot containing exteriors used to resemble a New York City streetscape. It reduced a two-city-block area of the lot to ashes and burned through much of the adjacent Courthouse Square set that has appeared in such films as "Back to the Future" and "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Also destroyed was the popular "King Kong" attraction featured in the Universal Studios Theme Park tram tour of the back lot, and a warehouse where thousands of copies of archived TV shows and films were stored. Studio officials said all of the material lost in the video vault could be replaced.

More than 400 firefighters battled the flames late into the night. Nine firefighters and a deputy sheriff suffered minor injuries, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said at a news conference.

He said an investigation revealed the fire was touched off by three members of a studio work crew who had been using a blow torch to apply asphalt shingles to the roof of a building facade.

They finished their work at about 3 a.m. and stood watch for an hour, according to company policy. Seeing no signs of a fire, they left the scene for a break, but a security guard in the vicinity noticed flames about 45 minutes later and called the fire department.

The fire, which burned for about 18 hours, forced authorities to close the theme park for the day, but the facility was reopened to tourists on Monday morning.

Much of the same area scorched by Sunday's blaze had been destroyed by a 1990 arson fire and was subsequently rebuilt.

Firefighters were hampered on Sunday by low water pressure at times, but Freeman said the difficulty seemed to result from the overwhelming water demands posed by the blaze. At the height of the fire, more than 18,000 gallons of water per minute were being poured into the flames, he said.

Only one current TV show, the CBS series "The Ghost Whisperer," was staged on the portion of the lot damaged by the fire. That series is on summer hiatus and not scheduled to resume production until June 11, a studio spokeswoman said.

She said no movie productions were affected by the blaze.

Universal is operated by NBC Universal Inc, which is 80 percent owned by General Electric Co.

Reuters/Nielsen

Universal Studios fire sparked by blow torch

[lurkey]

From another message board regarding the video assets lost in the fire:

I haven't heard for sure, but the video assets may have been largely dub masters used for fulfilling dub requests from their domestic and international client TV stations who broadcast Universal's many syndicated TV shows. If that's the case, then no, master copies would not have been housed in the same location—specifically for this type of scenario, but they will be busy for quite some time creating replacement dub masters.

Don't most studios use climates with hardly any change for storing the original master copies. Such as deep underground salt mines where humidity and temperature barely fluctuate.

But what was forgotten was the music vault:

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/u ... c-history/

2ND UPDATE: Uni Blaze Burns Music History
MONDAY AM UPDATE: Universal Music just gave me a "clarification" on my report regarding UMG’s vault and the Universal Studio fire on Sunday: "Thankfully, there was little lost from UMG's vault. A majority of what was formerly stored there was moved earlier this year to our other facilities. Of the small amount that was still there and waiting to be moved, it had already been digitized so the music will still be around for many years to come. And in addition to being digitized, physical back up copies of what was still left at that location were made and stored elsewhere. So thankfully, smart care, administration and preparation of these gems prevailed." So let me get this straight: first there's no report of irreplaceable damage at the Universal Studios vault, then I find out there's musical history destruction because of a rental agreement with Universal Music, and now execs it's only "a little" and not a problem. Funny, because my insiders insist it's a BIG problem. Universal Music claims that over the past year it had been moving master recordings of its "big name" musical artists to the giant Iron Mountain, Pennsylvania vault -- the same one used by Bill Gates and Microsoft. What was left, Universal Music contends, was only "more obscure artists from the '40s and the early '50s." My final thought: the public may never know the truth.

SUNDAY: It looks like more was damaged or destroyed in today's Universal Studios fire than anyone previously thought. I've learned that Universal Music, which is a completely separate company and owned by Vivendi (which owns 20% of NBC Universal), rents space in the huge video vault housed on the studio lot. But one source tells me that, as a consequence, inside the video vault that was billowing thick black smoke were 1000's of original Decca, MCA, ABC recording masters from the last century including a wide range of music from Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters to Judy Garland and The Carpenters. "This is a tremendous loss in music history. A very sad day indeed. It's too bad they saved the videos that they have backups on instead of the master recordings in which they do not, although they may not have had a choice since the fire had already engulfed much of the music side of the vault," a source just told me. Universal Studios can't confirm what has been damaged or destroyed music-wise at this point because it doesn't yet know what exactly was housed in the storage rented to Universal Music.

[JonathanBelles]

Because of the fires in California, they are now shooting a movie for the first time in a long time (that I am aware of) at Universal Studios in Orlando. They are shooting for Final Destination 4 in the New York Section.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvmTTJgBoAo

It's GREAT to see something filming at the studios once again in Orlando. Some of the comments that I have heard on other boards are that it makes a 1990's feeling in the park to the "What you may see in the parks today".

Depending on how careful the director/film crew is and when the new coaster is finished, there may be some interuptions of construction and testing since you cannot have roaring of a coaster in the background (unless it is in the movie).

Many rides including Twister and Mummy will likely be closed during filming.