Universal Studios tourists see damage close up
Charred sets become featured attraction on back lot tour.
Tourists from around the world lined up to board the first trams into Universal Studios Hollywood soon after the park reopened this morning, many assuming they would be routed away from the burned back lot where sets and attractions were charred by a daylong fire Sunday.
Instead, the fire damage became one of the first stops on the 45-minute tour.
"We're going to take you right up next to the devastated part of our lot and give you a close-up," said the tour guide aboard the first tram as about 130 people boarded shortly after the park reopened at 10 a.m.
The first sign of the destruction was a fire truck parked along the tour route. Then the tram rounded a corner and the group gasped.
Before them was what looked like a burned street, the simulated brick and metal twisted and melted. Firefighters hosed down charred wood. A row of fire trucks were parked nearby, with firefighters milling around.
"I wasn't sure they'd take us that close," said Trevor Richardson, 32, of Calgary, Canada, who was taking the tour with his wife and son.
So dramatic was the scene that some visitors were confused. Was it a simulation or real damage? The guide prodded them into action.
"Go ahead, by the way, use your camera equipment as you see fit," he said. "Take as many photos or video footage as you want."
Cameras clicked as the guide explained to tourists from India, Europe and Scandinavia that the wreckage was burned facades, not actual buildings. Other lots, he said, had been burned intentionally in the past, including a nearby lot used to film scenes of burning Atlanta in "Gone With the Wind."
Before the tour left the fire scene, the guide thanked fire officials who brought the blaze under control Sunday night.
"Some of the world's greatest firefighters descended on Universal," he said.
Visitors applauded.
The next stop was a simulated car explosion modeled on "The Fast and the Furious." The simulated flames had new meaning for the visitors.
"I think this is how the fire started," said Steven Razo, 15, of Highland Park, pointing to the cars.
Foreign tourists visiting the park for the first time marveled at how quickly staff rebounded after the fire, mounting tours and incorporating the fire into their narrative.
"They have arranged so quickly for people to see it the next day," said Rajaesh Gupta, 68, who was visiting from New Delhi.
