Fire On The New Harry Potter Film Set

Were the naughty little gremlins at work recently on the new Harry Potter film? It was announced that a fire broke out on the set of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ which has left the mighty Hogwarts in total ruins.

All of the Harry Potter movies are filmed in the UK at the Leavesden Film Studios just outside of Watford in Hertfordshire. The fire started on a Friday evening while the second unit was filming a scene based in the court yard during a battle sequence. Apparently the scene involved a lot of pyrotechnics being set off and it all got a little too much and this then led to a fire breaking out. The scene is part of the climax of the second of the final two films and promises to be pretty spectacular. Luckily enough no one was hurt and none of the lead stars were present.

A spokesperson for the film was quoted as saying "It was a big special effects scene. Unfortunately, there was a small fire as a result of that. As a precaution, as we had already mobilized our own in-house fire team who had it under control, the fire brigade was called and it was put out in under an hour."

Luckily it was only the set which was destroyed and the remainder of the studio complex was undamaged. It is reported that the set was due to be rebuilt anyway in the near future. The studio said "The scene was where the set was being destroyed and then it was to be rebuilt for a new scene, as part of a battle for Deathly Hallows part two."

Now the damage was quite costly coming in at around £100,000 and delaying filming for a while, but luckily the release date for the film in November 2010 has not been effected. So fans won’t be disappointed.

Big Studios such as Warner always take fire safety very seriously, especially the big Hollywood blockbusters such as the Harry Potter movies. They have specialist fire safety staff in place to develop and ensure that escape route plans and fire fighting equipment is deployed and people trained in its proper use.

A studio set is like any other work building and so risk assessments are carried out and extra caution is taken producing fire plans. When large amounts of physical special effects are being planned such as those involving pyrotechnics there are specialist extinguishers in place such as CO2, Powder and models such as the L2 or M28 for use on metals based fires.

There is a whole subset of fire protection specialists who work solely on movies. They are well versed in the specialist equipment needed and on how to deal with fires in confined or awkward spaces such as those found in a movie studio. Very careful safety precautions are taken when explosives are being used. It can be difficult for conventional fire alarm systems to be effective in such environments as the detectors will be set off due to the smoke and heat being produced by the pyrotechnics.

Whether you are involved in the film industry or any other work place, you should always make sure you have your fire evacuation plans and safety measure in place in case the worst happens. Ensure your staff can escape easily and know where the fire assembly point is located so as a head count can be conducted quickly.

You can find out about Fire Extinguishers as well as Fire Alarm Panels at A2Z Fire Ltd.