Universal Studios blaze burns video vault. Jaws 3-D not lost forever, unfortunately.
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A pressurized cylinder exploded at Universal Studios on Sunday, injuring two firefighters as they tried to fight a blaze that began earlier in the day, Los Angeles authorities said.
The explosion occurred about 2:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. ET) near the video vault of the Universal Studios back lot. The vault was damaged. Throughout the morning, large plumes of black smoke rose as the fire burned the vault containing hundreds of videos, said Ron Meyer, chief operating officer of Universal Studios.
“We have duplicates of everything,” said Ron Meyer, NBC Universal president and chief operating officer. “Nothing is lost forever.”
“Fortunately, nothing irreplaceable was lost,” Meyer said. “The video library was affected and damaged, but our main vault of our motion picture negatives was not.”
Meyer estimated there were 40,000 to 50,000 videos and film reels in a vault that burned but said duplicates were stored in a different location. Firefighters managed to recover hundreds of titles.
The videos included every film that Universal has produced and footage from television series including “Miami Vice” and “I Love Lucy.”