Thursday, June 12, 2008

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS ON FIRE!!


California always experiences an increased number of fires every year, but one has recently struck an important part of Hollywood.

California always experiences an increased number of fires every year, but one has recently struck an important part of Hollywood. A fire broke out at Universal Studios early this morning during a film shoot and is currently still raging through the studio's backlot. The blaze was first reported at 4:45AM in a sound stage where it expanded rapidly, destroying one sound stage and several other buildings within 30 minutes. At 6:45AM, over 200 firefighters and 2 helicopters were called in to help fight the blaze in an effort to protect the film vault.
I took this photo a week before fire.


Numerous buildings and park attractions have been either damaged or destroyed by the fire so far. As of this time of the morning, the fire is currently still being fought by firefighters and is still burning its way through the backlot.According to reports, the fire quickly spread to the studio's famous New York City streetscape as well as the King Kong exhibit, which is expected to be a total loss. Besides numerous soundstages and buildings, apparently the Cyclone ride and three movie sets have been damaged as well.

Thankfully no injuries have been reported, however this is incredibly tragic for Universal Studios, as much of their backlot has been entirely destroyed by the fire. Another report says that a third of the film vault was in flames, but we haven't heard any reports yet on whether any films were lost or not. Universal has a great number of films in their archive and it would be immensely tragic to have any of them lost!



And this picture a week after fire.






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