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Fire on the Universal Studios Backlot
A house fire is a terrible thing to have to live through. All those lost irreplaceable items lost in one tragic turn of events. Simply terrifying.I imagine this is much like what the groundskeepers at the Universal Studios Backlot are experiencing right now after a dramatic fire on the lot.
Hundreds of firefighters are battling a large blaze that broke out on Sunday on a back lot at Universal Studios, site of movie and television production, a spokesman for a neighboring fire department said.
Movie props sell for thousands of dollars for one reason. They are rare. After a movie ends, unless they plan on making more of them many of these props either disappear into obscurity or they are coveted by rabid collectors.
Anything they made for ongoing series that was damaged would be easy enough to replace. They built it once, why not again. But if they have no use for it, then keeping it around is simply for the tourists or purely for nostalgia sake.
It will be sad to see some of these treasures disappear for no good reason.
It’s sad to say goodbye to the Back To The Future town square, with the clock tower.
Also gone:
the New York/New England street lot ;
“King Kong” (anamatronic used for tram tour);
“replaceable” film footage.
Odd that this fire broke out in the same area as that fire a number of years ago, when the old Clock Tower set was partially damaged, then later restored.
Sad to see some of that go too. I’m just glad nobody was hurt.
Ditto; as long as nobody was trapped in it.
Latest reports say that the Clock Tower is only slightly damaged, but the rest of the Courthouse Square is completely destroyed.
From what I heard today, the severity of the fire was in part Universal’s fault. The LAFD fire chief discussed how the hydrants on the studio lot had no water pressure forcing the fire fighters to bring in helicopters taking water from the “Jaws” lake and also running long hoses from hydrants outside the lot to fight the fire. Apparently the problems with the fire fighting mechanisms on the lot have been known since the large fire in the 90’s but were never fixed.
great scott!!!