Fire destroys buildings at Universal Studios

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A huge fire burned for nearly 10hours at the Universal Studios film and TV studio on Sunday,damaging a sound stage, movie sets, a popular "King Kong"attraction and shutting down its theme park and CityWalkshopping center for the day.

About 500 fire-fighters from several Los Angeles-area firedepartments battled the blaze, and six were treated forinjuries. A deputy sheriff was also treated after he and afire-fighter were hurt in an explosion in a burning warehouse,L.A. County Fire Inspector Ron Haralson said.

Haralson said the fire had been contained to a singlestructure -- the "King Kong" exhibit -- and that fire-fightershad brought in bulldozers to move thousands of burningvideotapes and other flaming debris. Fire-fighters earlierpredicted the blaze would be "knocked down" within hours.

A total of five structures within the New York exhibit,including one sound stage, were lost in the fire.

Also damaged was the "King Kong" attraction, a famous alleyfrom "The Sting" and a set from "Back to the Future".

Sunday's taping of the popular MTV Movie Awards at theadjacent Gibson Amphitheatre, which was not affected, was setto go ahead as planned.

Company officials had earlier said the studio's theme parkand popular CityWalk shopping center would open at noon, butchanged courses by around 2:45 p.m. local time (10:45 p.m.British time), saying that neither the theme park or CityWalkwould open.

Cars had earlier been let in, and a Reuters journalist sawpeople lined up outside a restaurant on CityWalk.

Traffic snaked for miles in all directions to the studio,where a building housing a video vault had been badly damagedand the vault itself was "compromised."

A Universal spokeswoman said about 40,000 to 50,000 videoshad been damaged but the studios either had copies of thosefilms or could easily copy them.

The contents of a second vault holding master copies ofolder and classic movies were salvaged.

"Nothing irreplaceable was lost," said Ron Meyer, UniversalStudios' president and chief operating officer.

The studio said the full damage had not yet been assessed.

1990 FIRE: THE SEQUEL

Sunday's fire burned some of the same back-lot areasdestroyed by a blaze in 1990, which whipped through the NewYork Street and a set used for "Ben Hur." It took years torebuild, and repairing the damage cost an estimated $50 million(25 million pounds).

L.A. County Fire Inspector Darryl Jacobs said the blaze wasfirst reported around 4:45 a.m., but it was not immediatelyclear what started it.

Fire-fighters encountered explosions from propane tanks andcalled in helicopters at one point to drop water.

Universal Studios is bounded by the City of Los Angeles andcommunities like Burbank. It is home to the Universal Picturesmovie lot and Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.

Several acres on the 230-acre (93-hectare) back-lot area,where films and TV shows are produced, were burned, but thetheme park was largely unaffected.

Universal Studios Hollywood houses attractions such as"Revenge of the Mummy - The Ride" and "Shrek 4-D." Its"CityWalk" mall has 65 restaurants, nightclubs and shops.

Universal Pictures is one of six major film studios with ahistory that dates to 1909. It has been a major producer ofhorror movies and tapped a young Steven Spielberg to make1975's "Jaws." The director still houses his productioncompany, Amblin Entertainment, on the Universal lot.

Other hit Universal titles have included the "Back to theFuture" and "Jurassic Park" movies.

Universal Studios is operated by NBC Universal, a diversemedia company that is 80-percent owned by General Electric and20 percent by French communications and utility companyVivendi.

(Additional reporting by Bob Tourtellotte, editing by EricWalsh)