Monday marks 18 years since Universal Studios backlot fire

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. (CBS, KYMA) - On June 1, 2008, a three-alarm fire broke out on the backlot of Universal Studios, destroying several icons from movies including the mock New York and New England streets, Courthouse Square from Back to the Future, and the King Kong exhibit on the studio tour.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department sent hundreds of firefighters, as well as two helicopters dropping water. Nine firefighters and a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy sustained minor injuries.

The fire took at least 12 hours to extinguish, in part because of the low water pressure of Universal's pipes, meaning firefighters had to tap streams and lakes.

Universal executives initially said the fire destroyed 40,000 to 50,000 archived digital video and film copies of Universal movies and TV shows.

Universal president Ron Meyer told the media that "nothing irreplaceable was lost" and that the company had duplicates of everything destroyed.

In 2019, The New York Times Magazine reported that the fire may have destroyed a staggering swath of music history.

The fire reportedly consumed a vault containing the irreplaceable master recordings of an estimated half million songs, including works from Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, and Elton John.

Universal Music disputes the article, but CEO Lucian Grainge acknowledged that "the loss of even a single piece of archived material is heartbreaking".