Universal Studios Backlot Ravaged by Fire

I wonder if this is the same insurance underwriter as on the last fire. Universal seems a pretty bad risk.

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Erik Olson said:
I wonder if this is the same insurance underwriter as on the last fire. Universal seems a pretty bad risk.

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Click to expand...

I do a fair amount of back lot work, and without mentioning specific studios I can attest that standing lumber-plastic-fiberglass facades over steel frames and telephone poles, with big humming power transformers inside, and crumbly termitey sawdust in piles, seems in my layman's opinion a considerable fire hazard.

Sort of a more when than if, know what I mean?
 
universal_fire3.jpg


The newest version. There is only one building I can't identify.
  1. Amblin Entertainment compound
  2. Grip and Electric department
  3. Hill Valley Courthouse Facade and Grip Dept. addtl. Warehouse (reports of partial damage)
  4. King Kong attraction (Total Loss)
  5. Wharf Street Waterfront (Blues Brothers)
  6. Mexico (Three Amigos)
  7. Earthquake attraction (possibly former attraction)
  8. Properties Department
  9. Europe / Spartacus Square
  10. Denver Street (Old West area - many original buildings)
  11. Industrial Street (Residential area, not usually on tour route)
  12. Colonial Street (Leave it to Beaver, The Munsters, The 'Burbs, Wisteria Lane)
  13. Airplane Mock-up Stage
  14. Film Vault (Total Loss)
  15. Film Vault
Building marked as "13" is one of the two you'll see in the photos of fire crews laying on the roof in a line with multiple hoses. The other building is two buildings to the South of that stage. As you can see, the warehouse (reportedly a vault) between these two major fire defense positions was a total loss. Had the fire made it through (I see no evidence that it did) those positions to the South-East, the entire lot would have been lost and the homes along the lot's Eastern edge under serious threat.

The area to the South-East of "5" is comprised of many original structures which date back to silent films. Up the hill, out of the frame I've provided is very hilly and serves as the location of "Falls Lake", which is where a good deal of open water sequences are filmed. It was constructed for Jaws The Revenge and used extensively on Waterworld.

Here is the ironic part. The area that burned is exactly the area that burned the last time. The area that burned was built to Steven Spielberg's team design back in 1991-1992. While the facades were of wood and other typical construction materials, the superstructures beneath them were decidedly higher-tech than what didn't burn - the original telephone pole supported kindling that is everywhere else on the lot.

Those firefighters took an incredible stand to save that first of two vaults. Glad to hear that there were no serious injuries.

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The area that burned was built to Steven Spielberg's team design back in 1991-1992.

It wasn't Steven Spielberg's team, it was Hank Meyer's team.
 
Spielberg definitely had a lead role in helping redesign and implement the lot after 1990's fire, which strangely burned in almost exactly the same footprint as yesterday's blaze.

As you know, Spielberg was part of Universal's disaster response team, which was on the ground yesterday afternoon to walk the area with Ron Meyer to survey the damage.

http://www.variety.com/VR1117986693.html

I'm sure surviving members of the original production design and architectual team will be on-hand to do the same again.

Perhaps they'll find a way to improve the water delivery infrastructure this time. Less than thirty days passed after the last blaze before they started construction on what burned yesterday.

Universal won't let things sit idle for too long.

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Spielberg - quite properly and expectedly - had a very influential role.

Having been there to see what was being done by the people in Hank's department, his art directors, his researchers, his assistant art directors and set designers, etcetera, I think describing Spielberg's role as "lead" sounds more like studio publicity, than a fair description of how the project came together.
 
Despite what you might read, the clock tower has miraculously survived another major fire.

Production vehicles surrounding the square were slightly damaged, but the open park setting (currently used as a recurring locatoin for Ghost Whisperer) certainly contributed to the building surviving this third blaze.

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...and we have a cause for the fire: some construction guys were using torches to heat roofing shingles they were applying, and a small fire started and got away from them...

...whoops.
 
At 4am in the morning? That seems inconceivable to me. Was it general maintenance or show-related?

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General maintenance, I think.

Also, the workers stayed on fire watch for about an hour or so after finishing up...and alas still missed that something was smoldering. The fire actually got going some time after they were done working.
 
Me too, but back before the 1990 fire. About a week before that one, I ran into John Landis on his Oscar set. We (my friends who had no business on the lot) were wandering around (solidly in Courthouse Square) after delivering a load of apple boxes and bumped into a little entourage of Landis and a few of his lackies. He was wearing a houndstooth jacket with those little professor patches on the elbows and pants that did nothing to contribute to the greater look.

John Landis
Hello. What are you guys doing here?

Me
We're scouting.

John Landis
For what? This is a closed set.

Lackie #1
We're over on Brownstone and this area is closed.

John Landis
Who are you?

Me
Interested observers... like I said we're scouting and
didn't see any closed set signs in the square. Uh... I
didn't get your name.

John Landis
I'm John Landis.

Me
Ah. Yes, well... if it's a closed set, then we'll
get out of your way.

John Landis
Nice to meet you.

Me
Please be careful not to burn down the entire studio.

(Okay, that last line is a little fantasy that has played out in my mind a few times since, but I like to imagine that I'd said it for real.)

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