I heard someone quoted as saying they should have digital copies of destroyed stock. The only specific title mentioned was I Love Lucy. Footage shows employees throwing film cans in the back of a truck. We all know the constant improvements being made in digital film preservation. It could be a devestating loss. Does anyone have any details?

Our local news reported Sunday night that there were approximately 10,000 copies of footage destroyed by the fire but they had 100% backups at another location so nothing was lost.

Here in Los Angeles, a local radio station reported the backup vault copies were destroyed but the original negatives, in another vault, are safe. Universal is open for business as usual on Monday.

It's the VIDEO vault that was burned. That's where they keep the master tapes of the broadcast shows. The video tapes are made from the film interpositives on a telecine machine. The film interpositives and the master negatives are kept in a different vault that was not affected by the fire. Likewise if there is any ORIGINAL video footage, it is kept in the film vault. The only thing lost was working copies of videos, which can be easily reproduced again.

The film vault is not going to burn, it's underground and non-combustible. Very old nitrate film stock will burn, but little of that exists anymore - safety film stock replaced it decades ago.

Universal Studios Backlot Fire: NYC Streetscape & King Kong Destroyed; Video Vault Damaged But Film Vault Safe, by Nikki Finke

UPDATE: Uni Blaze Burns Musical History
It looks like more was damaged or destroyed in today's Universal Studios fire than anyone previously thought. I've learned that Universal Music, which is a completely separate company and owned by Vivendi (which owns 20% of NBC Universal), rents space in the huge video vault housed on the studio lot. But one source tells me that, as a consequence, inside the video vault that was billowing thick black smoke were 1000's of original Decca, MCA, ABC recording masters from the last century including a wide range of music from Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters to Judy Garland and The Carpenters. "This is a tremendous loss in music history. A very sad day indeed. It's too bad they saved the videos that they have backups on instead of the master recordings in which they do not, although they may not have had a choice since the fire had already engulfed much of the music side of the vault," a source just told me. Universal Studios can't confirm what has been damaged or destroyed music-wise at this point because it doesn't yet know what exactly was housed in the storage rented to Universal Music.

Universal Studios Backlot Fire: NYC Streetscape & King Kong Destroyed; Video Vault Damaged But Film Vault Safe

Posted by Nikki Finke

Fire Destroys Parts of a Popular Movie Lot in California

From the New York Times, by MICHAEL CIEPLY

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — A large fire erupted early Sunday at NBC Universal’s studio lot here, destroying a video vault full of movie and television images and parts of a popular studio tour.

The blaze kept crowds out of the company’s theme park, and at least six firefighters were injured. But the fire did not delay a live broadcast on Sunday evening from an adjacent amphitheater of the MTV Movie Awards, which was scheduled to fill the area with celebrities.

Universal officials said the video vault, which was still burning late Sunday afternoon, contained images of movies and television shows dating to the 1920s, as well as recent ones, including “Knocked Up” and “Atonement” and the NBC series “Law & Order” and “The Office.”

But in no case was the destroyed material the only copy of a work, the officials said.

Studios typically store multiple copies of their movies and television shows, on their lots and in remote locations like salt and limestone mines.

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Studios typically store multiple copies of their movies and television shows, on their lots and in remote locations like salt and limestone mines.


now that you mention it there was a show on cable (modern marvels maybe?) about one of the salt mines that has piles of film tins in it.

the audio people dont keep mulitple copies also?

I did see footage of film cans being loaded into a truck, so there was some film there.