Jun 01 2008
Cinematic history goes up in flames
A fire at Universal Studios in Hollywood this morning was finally contained after 4-5 hours of burning. From the LA Times article:
At least 300 firefighters battled the blaze, including with water-dropping helicopters. The fire, which started at about 4:30 a.m., was expected to burn into the afternoon, although it was contained. Four firefighters suffered minor injuries.
The flames tore through a cavernous, two-story video vault containing video and copies of film, some dating to the 1920s. At one point, firefighters hastily removed canisters from the building by hand, but Universal officials said that the archives were copies and no original works had been lost.
Based on the dates mentioned, I’m guessing that their film vault contained nitrocellulose negatives, which are known to be highly flammable, unstable, and almost impossible to put out once a fire starts. Though the article states that all of these were copies, I really hope that everything has been backed up somewhere– not only additional nitrate copies, but copied onto a stable medium.
So far, I haven’t seen anything that talks about the origins of the fire, but it seems to have eliminated several sets, including those of “Back to the Future,” “Dick Tracy,” and “Ben Hur,”, as well as the building containing the film.