A good portion of the expensive and monumental set of HBO's series "Rome" has burned down, but little damages were caused to the facility's other sound stages, film archives, and other sets intact.
Firemen work to extinguish a fire bursting in the cinema studios of Cinecitta in Rome, Italy, on 09 August 2007. EPA/MASSIMO PERCOSSI
Variety reports that the popular and short lived series "Rome" on HBO - shot at the historic Cinecitta Studios backlot in Rome, is heavily damaged.
Yet "the studios are safe, sound, and in good shape, except for a corner of the backlot where the fire broke out," Cinecitta Studios deputy director Maurizio Sperandini told Daily Variety.
EPA/MASSIMO PERCOSSI
Sperandini said the fire broke out near the "Rome" set which according to Variety, HBO vacated in January - between 10 and 10.30 p.m. on Thursday night and lasted for under three hours, because of the quick work of firefighters who doused the flames with powerful fire trucks known as Super Dragons, sent over from nearby Leonardo da Vinci and Ciampino airports.
Variety reports that the fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical problem.
EPA/MASSIMO PERCOSSI
"Flames quickly spread to the area known as the "suburra," the ancient Roman red-light district on the 'Rome' set which is considered among the largest open-air sets ever constructed. It comprises a partial recreation of the Roman Forum, with temples, thermal baths, bordellos, and public buildings, all made using fiberglass panels, and other materials, some of which are highly flammable," reports Variety.
The flames were said to have reached as high as 133 feet and burned down an area of 32,000 square feet.
Variety reports that Cinecitta Studios was founded by Benito Mussolini in 1937 and known as Hollywood on the Tiber in its 1950s heyday when "Ben Hur" and "Quo Vadis" shot there -- spreads out over 600,000 square meters (717,000 square yards) and comprises 22 soundstages, including the legendary Studio 5, where Federico Fellini worked.
Sperandini told Variety the BBC is on site preparing to shoot its long running science fiction series "Doctor Who" at Cinecitta in September.
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