After investigation the Los Angeles County Fire Marshall’s preliminary findings has determined the fire that devasted Universal Studio sets, rides, exhibits and lots was accidental.
Workers using blowtorches accidentally started a weekend fire at Universal Studios, Los Angeles County spokeswoman Judy Hammond told the press on Monday. Adding to the disaster was the explosion of some pressurized tanks sitting nearby which only enhanced the fire’s ability to spread over two full city square blocks within the studio compound.
The L.A. County Fire Dept. has stated that the final total of injuries obtained fighting the fire were ten firefighters and one sheriff’s deputy. Fortunately, all injuries were minor.
Smoke rising from Universal could be seen for miles around the Los Angeles area with Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge saying the area looked like a bomb had exploded and was greatful there were no fatalities. The Councilman said that if he didn’t know better he would have thought the studio was filming a disaster sequence, the damage looked that extensive on the scene. However, Ron Meyer, chief operating officer of Universal Studios stated that “Nothing irreplaceable was lost. The video library was affected and damaged, but [the] main vault of motion picture negatives was not.”
Universal Studios employees resumed normal business hours on Monday, including the studio tours that didn’t include the fire-ravaged areas.
They say this but at 4:15-4:30 a.m. at least 4 large and loud explosions were reported by people outside the studio who reported of these throughout Sunday morning and into the afternoon, including on the internet, but now there is no mention of these reports of early morning explosions happening at this time. These 4 large explosions do not coincide with the official position of a blow-torch accident and later propane gas tank explosions.