Unique film set 'wiped out' in 007 blaze disaster
As befits a James Bond tale, mystery surrounds the survival of several unique and expensive pieces of film equipment caught up in the blaze that destroyed the 007 set at Pinewood Studios yesterday.
The fire in the corrugated metal warehouse-like stage wiped out three different sets that had been transformed into Venice for several final scenes in the new Bond film Casino Royale.
One of them was a house that tilted into the water with the help of a complicated hydraulics system, which used four specially-made valves of which there are only eight in the world.
The valves had been flown into England under armed guard from America and production bosses were yesterday waiting to get the all clear to get onto the set to see if they had survived the fierce fire that took two hours to get under control.
An insider at the 007 set told Times Online: "The tilting house is used in the run up to the exciting end of the film and it involves a complicated hydraulics system.
"That system needs four valves that were flown in specially and were looked after by armed guards all the way because they are so valuable.
"They are made to certain specifications and there are only eight of them in the world, now there may only be four of them. We were shooting on Friday so I would be surprised if anyone had been able to get them out.
"Everything is made of wood and there was lots of dust and rubbish around so it all would have gone up quite quickly."
A spokesman for Eon, the production company making the film, confirmed that the tilting house was one of the sets but said they could not say what, if anything, had been saved.
"No-one has been allowed on to the set, we have to stay away from it so we don’t know if they have been saved. An exclusion zone has been put up around the place while an investigation is carried out into the cause of the fire."
The new Bond actor, Daniel Craig, had been filming at the 007 stage more than a week ago and the sets were being dismantled when the fire broke out.
Pinewood Studios said that although the full extent of the damage had yet to be assessed, it believed that the 007 stage would have to be demolished and rebuilt. In recent years Pinewood has seen its profits slump from £12.9 million in 2004 to £5.3 million last year.
A Pinewood spokesman added: "There has been no significant collateral damage to any other assets at the Pinewood site. Apart from the 007 stage, the rest of Pinewood Studios will be fully operational by the end of today.
"Pinewood Shepperton has insurance policies in place to cover the company against damage or loss to its assets resulting from fires. Any resulting loss of earnings are also subject to insurance cover.
"The Board has not been able to assess the full effects of this incident. However, its preliminary view is that this is unlikely to have any material impact on the financial performance of the Company for the full year."
There are other 44 other stages that can be used while the 007 stage is being rebuilt.
Firefighters, who had to deal with exploding gas cylinders, took almost two hours to bring the blaze under control and a Buckinghamshire Fire Brigade spokesperson said that no-one will be allowed onto the site until this afternoon at the earliest.
He added that the temperature inside the studios would have reached between 500C - 1000C during the fire which is hot enough to melt metal, leading to fears that the valves may be damaged beyond repair.
No-one would say if they had seen a short, bald man with a scar running down the right side of his face and carrying a white cat running from the scene on Sunday.
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