By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A huge fire broke out at theUniversal Studios film and TV studio on Sunday, damaging asound stage, movie sets, a popular "King Kong" attraction andclosing its theme park for much of the day.
Close to 500 fire-fighters from several Los Angeles-areafire departments battled the blaze, and five were treated forminor injuries, L.A. County Fire Inspector Sam Padilla said.
By midmorning, the fire had been contained to a singlestructure, the "King Kong" exhibit, and fire-fighters predictedthe blaze would be "knocked down" within hours.
"A total of five structures within the New York exhibit,including one sound stage, were lost," said another L.A. Countyfire inspector, Frank Garrido, who added that the fire startedin an area depicting New York City that was destroyed.
The fire was not expected to affect Sunday's taping of thepopular MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheater, which wasnot affected by the fire.
Fire and company officials had earlier said the studio'stheme park and popular CityWalk shopping centre would open atnoon, while tours to the studio back lot, where the fireoccurred, had been cancelled.
By 2:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. EDT), however, Universal saidneither the theme park or CityWalk had yet opened, althoughcars were being let in, and a Reuters journalist saw peoplelined 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 monetary damage had not yet beenfully 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 $50million.
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 unharmed.
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 Inc., adiverse media company that is 80-percent owned by GeneralElectric Co. and 20 percent by French communications andutility company Vivendi.
(Additional reporting by Bob Tourtellotte, editing by EricWalsh)
