Fire engulfs the Universal Studios backlot.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:15 AM PDT, June 1, 2008
A huge fire the length of two city blocks broke out on the backlot of Universal Studios in Universal City today, destroying a soundstage and several sets, including New York, New England and King Kong streetscapes.
At least 300 firefighters -- as well as water-dropping helicopters -- were battling the blaze, which was expected to burn for several more hours.
At 9:30 a.m., the fire was burning in a cavernous video vault containing television video and copies of television film, some dating to the 1920s. At one point this morning, firefighters were hastily removing canisters from the building by hand, but Universal officials said that the archives were copies.
The fire started just before dawn, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Three firefightes were injured and the cause had not been determined. Offficials believe it started at a film set.
Jacobs estimated that a third of a square mile had burned and said that firefighters were making an "aggressive attack" on the blaze, despite early reports of low water pressure.
Officials said the theme park and Universal CityWalk would be open today from noon to 6 p.m. A typical weekend day sees 25,000 visitors, officials said.
The fire sent a giant column of black smoke into the air that could be seen for miles. Officials said the fire was able to spread so fast in part because the studio sets were made of timber.
"Big lumber causes a big fire," said Jacobs, noting that some of the soundstages date to the 1930s and '40s.
"When there's a fire of this magnitude, we bring a lot of personnel."
Jacobs said there were some small explosions when firefighters first arrived, but officials weren't sure what caused them.
Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, who raced to the scene early this morning, said it was depressing to see part of Hollywood history go up in flames.
"Firefighters are handing out the film canisters. It's very sad," he said. "Ever since the movies came to Hollywood, there have been studio fires. And this is a big one."
"It's like a movie set, a disaster film," he aded. "And it's sad because of all of the people who come here, who work here."
La Bonge said there were water-pressure problems in Universal City, which lies in unincorporated L.A. County, not the city of Los Angeles.
"If this was a neighborhood, they would have had a higher requirements for water pressure," he said this morning, standing outside the studio gates. "They had to draft from some of the nearby lakes. That's a big issue."
There was at least one water tender with a 6,000-gallon capacity brought to the scene.
L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district covers Universal Studios, said the firefighters were unable to get adequate water pressure early on to fight the fire. He said there was supposed to be a booster system to increase pressure, but it may not have worked properly.
"Every firefighter I talked to who was here early in the morning said the flow out of the nozzles was not adequate," Yaroslavsky said. "That's an issue. Studios are combustible. The soundstages are wood and padding. Fires here move quickly like a brush fire, and they need to have water pressure at the beginning."
Fire officials said fire protection features at the lot were introduced following a 1990 blaze but that they didn't appear to work adequately this morning.
"It appears the fire this morning overwhelmed fire protection features," he said. "We're going to readily and quickly reevaluate that and see if that had any impact on the water pressure. We had two city blocks on fire at the same time. It was very flammable and exposed a couple of other structures, one of which continues to burn, the video vault."
Times Staff Writer Amanda Covarrubias, Ari B. Bloomekatz and Associated Press contributed to this report.