2008 Universal Studios fire

2008 Universal Studios fire

Date	June 1, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-06-01)
Location	Universal Studios Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
Coordinates	34°08′28″N 118°21′02″W / 34.14111°N 118.35056°W / 34.14111; -118.35056
Cause	Heated asphalt shingle
Outcome	Destruction of three acres of Universal backlot, King Kong Encounter, original master tapes for popular music, and digital TV and film backups. Injury of nine firefighters and an LA County sheriff's deputy.
Deaths	0
Non-fatal injuries	17

On June 1, 2008, a fire broke out on the backlot of Universal Studios Hollywood, an American film studio and theme park in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California. The fire began when a worker used a blowtorch to warm asphalt shingles that were being applied to a facade. The worker left before checking that all spots had cooled, and as a result, a three-alarm fire broke out. Nine firefighters and a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy sustained minor injuries. The fire was extinguished after 24 hours.

Universal Pictures said the fire destroyed a three-acre (1.2 ha) portion of the Universal backlot, including the attraction King Kong Encounter^[1] and 40,000 to 50,000 archived digital video and film copies. A 2019 exposé from The New York Times Magazine asserted that the fire also destroyed 118,000 to 175,000 audio master tapes belonging to Universal's former division and NBCUniversal's then sister company thru Vivendi (a shareholder with General Electric until 2009) Universal Music Group (UMG). This included original recordings belonging to some of the best-selling artists worldwide. UMG disputed the report, though the CEO, Lucian Grainge, acknowledged that "the loss of even a single piece of archived material is heartbreaking".