Universal Fire Is Already Becoming Just a Memory

Walking through the blackened moonscape that was once the set for the movies “Dick Tracy” and “The Sting,” it was difficult Tuesday for Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Bob Haskell to believe it had been only two weeks since a multimillion-dollar fire ravaged the Universal Studios back lot.

“It looks so bizarre now,” said Haskell, commander of the first fire unit to arrive at the Nov. 6 blaze that destroyed several of the lot’s most famous facades, including New York Street and Brownstone Street.

Two weeks ago, as the suspected arson blaze raged out of control in four acres of wooden sets, “it just looked red,” said Haskell, who suffered a minor burn on his left hand. “There was flame everywhere.”

On Tuesday, the charred streets between Courthouse Square, featured in the “Back to the Future” films, and studio warehouses were little more than a flattened, black field littered with sooty debris as work crews hustled to clear the area for set reconstruction scheduled to begin Monday.

Bulldozers moved in three days after the fire to begin clearing the charred hunks of wood and twisted metal that may have been part of a general store in one movie, a saloon in another.

“It looked like Hiroshima,” one worker said of the damage.

Damage estimates by sheriff’s officials and firefighters have been as high as $25 million. Dan Slusser, senior vice president and general manager of Universal Studios, said Tuesday that the figure might be a close guess, but the studio has still not completed the tally of losses.

Security guard Michael J. Huston, 40, of Tujunga has pleaded not guilty to setting the fire.

All that remained of the elaborate sets Tuesday, the first day reporters were allowed to roam freely through the fire area, were concrete fittings and piles of ash. Dry hillsides, where the fire charred the grass, are now a velvety green from reseeding last week.

The studio’s King Kong exhibit, which sustained minor water damage, was reopened to tour groups Tuesday. The giant mechanical ape served as a backdrop for a brief awards ceremony during which high-ranking officers of the Burbank and Los Angeles city and county fire departments were congratulated for their work and 400 tour passes were donated on their behalf to the Alisa Ann Ruch California Burn Institute.

Cleanup crews of up to 45 people, which have been working 11-hour days, will begin their final day today. On Monday, construction crews will begin building the frameworks for the elaborate facades of the resurrected movie sets.

A construction supervisor said the sets should be completely rebuilt by the beginning of the tourist season in June. Studio officials said the new sets will look much the same as those that burned but will incorporate changes to make them more accessible to film crews.

To that end, director Steven Spielberg has been involved in the early phases of reconstruction. Slusser and Marvin Levy, marketing director for Spielberg’s Amblin Productions, said Spielberg’s role probably will be limited to the conceptual and design phases of the project.