Destruction of three acres of Universal backlot, King Kong Encounter, original master tapes for popular music, and digital TV and film backups.
Injury of nine firefighters and an LA County sheriff's deputy.
Deaths
0
Non-fatal injuries
17
On June 1, 2008, a fire broke out on the backlot of Universal Studios Hollywood, an American film studio and theme park in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California. The fire began when a worker used a blowtorch to warm asphalt shingles that were being applied to a facade.[1][2][3] He left before checking that all spots had cooled, and a three-alarm fire broke out. Nine firefighters and a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy sustained minor injuries. The fire was extinguished after 24 hours.[4]
Universal Pictures said the fire destroyed a three-acre (1.2 ha) portion of the Universal backlot, including the attraction King Kong Encounter[5][6] and 40,000 to 50,000 archived digital video and film copies. A 2019 exposé from The New York Times Magazine asserted that the fire also destroyed 118,000 to 175,000 audio master tapes belonging to Universal's former division and NBCUniversal's then sister company thru Vivendi (a shareholder with General Electric until 2009) Universal Music Group (UMG). This included original recordings belonging to some of the best-selling artists worldwide. UMG disputed the report, though the CEO, Lucian Grainge, acknowledged that "the loss of even a single piece of archived material is heartbreaking".[7][8]
^"USH 2008 Fire". The Studio Tour. Archived from the original on August 3, 2010. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
^"Universal Studios blaze burns sets, video vault". CNN. June 1, 2008. Retrieved June 13, 2008.
^"Investigators: Heating tools caused fire". ABC. June 3, 2008. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
^Cite error: The named reference NYT-20190611 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference LA Daily News story was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^MacDonald, Brady (June 2, 2008). "Universal Studios Hollywood to replace 'King Kong' with new attraction". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
^"Universal Music Group Chief Lucian Grainge Addresses Vault Fire: 'We Owe Our Artists Transparency'". Billboard. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
^"Universal boss on 2008 fire: "The loss of even a single piece of archived material is heartbreaking"". NME. June 19, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
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