Universal Studios back lot went up in flames early Sunday morning, when it was accidentally set on fire by a blow torch.
Fire investigators announced on Monday that the fire had been accidentally started by workers using a blowtorch on a movie set.
The fast-moving fire tore through world-famous movie studio Sunday, destroying a popular King Kong tourist attraction, and burning the sets for such blockbuster movies as Back to the Future and Bruce Almighty.
Chief Michael Freeman of the Los Angles County fire department said “The fire was contained to the lot but burned for more than 12 hours before the final flames were extinguished.”
MTV reports that Ron Meyer, the president and CEO of Universal, said that while the fire did plenty of damage, the situation looked worse than it actually was.
No sets currently in production were affected, and the video vault that went up in flames was simply used to store duplicate tapes of television shows so no irreplaceable films were lost.
The fire injured 9 firefighters and a sheriff’s deputy and destroyed most of the New York City street, sets used in films such as Back to the Future, Bruce Almighty and To Kill a Mockingbird. It also set to flame a warehouse containing more than 40,000 videos (all of which exist in copies elsewhere, officials said) and the King Kong portion of the Universal Studios tram ride.
L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said, “The critical thing is water pressure. We gotta find out why there was inadequate water pressure in the early minutes to hour or two of the fire.”
At its height, more than 400 firefighters fought the blaze.