Firefighters Knocking Down A Fire on Uni Studios Lot

A three-alarm blaze that broke out around 4:45 a.m. local time brought some 400 city and county firefighters (along with Uni's own employees) rushing to contain it, which they did after it destroyed three blocks of movie facades (including New York Street and Courthouse Square). The studios' King Kong exhibit was destroyed, as was the setting where Clint Eastwood's recent Cannes entrant Changeling was shot, and a video vault continued to pour off a dense plume of gray-black smoke, mostly from plastic video containers.

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The Los Angeles Times' Monday editions described the battle  and what historical sets were lost to the flames.

Universal Pictures President and C.O.O. Ron Meyer spoke at a press conference along with local pols and the city and county fire chefs, noting that "Nothing irreplaceable was lost", and thanking the firefighters, who "Are real heroes--they arrived in record time and contained a fire that really could have burned out of control." (One firefighter was hospitalized with heat exhaustion, two with minor burns in the early going. Further minor injuries later in the day were attributed in one report to compressed gas canisters  exploding . Although water pressure was low--possibly due to a system of deluge pipes built into the facades after a similar 1990 fire in the same area, which failed to do the job--fire officials pointed out that 18,000 gallons of water per hour were being used to beat back the fire at its peak.)

The 1990 fire caused about $25 million in damages. No estimate was forthcoming as to the present fire's estimated cost.

The chiefs said the cause was under investigation--a commercial shoot had been underway in the area earlier--and that despite  a number of early reports of explosions, probably from propane tanks, they lent no credence to rumors of a bomb threat.

Meyer, sporting a Tattoo Temple tee shirt (he's a tat enthusiast) alongside the chiefs with their bright insignia, appeared relieved. He reaffirmed in the press conference  that the studio's theme park and City Walk were aiming to open by noon. That hope was dashed around 2:30 p.m., and a sizable crowd who had waited in many cases since 9 a.m. told local TV reporters of their disgruntlement--despite the attempted blandishments of rain checks, passes, bottled water and a mariachi band. The park was supposedly set to reopen at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The MTV Movie Awards went off as scheduled, despite traffic problems,  in the evening at the nearby Gibson Amphitheater. Johnny Depp snagged a couple awards and Transformers won yes,  best picture.

Meyer pointed out that only two of Ghost Whisperer's eight sets had been affected, New York Street had seen a few shooting days for Sex and City, TV version, had been shot on New York Street and Los Angles county Fire Chief Martin Freeman smiled when asked if the flames had gone near Desperate Housewife's Wisteria Lane. "I knew somebody would ask that," said Chief Freeman, "I don't know if I should publicly say I don't watch that particular show, but the answer's no."

Presumably the Chief also was not among the film goers who vaulted the surprising Sex and the City to a first-place finish for the weekend, as it topped $55 million to beat out Indy4's second weekend, which showed the adventure flick down 54 percent at $46 million.

Chief Freeman added that the video vault structure would probably require several more hours before his crews could "drown" the fire there.