14 DAY TRIAL // The set of the latest Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” was destroyed by a very powerful blaze on Friday. For the final scene of the movie, producers had prepared the Battle of Hogwarts, with a controlled explosion and fire. Sadly, things got out of hand and the blaze destroyed the Castle completely, Moviefone’s Inside Movies reports.
The incident occurred Friday evening, and was so powerful that it ruined the set altogether, setting back production by at least one month, ongoing reports say. None of the main cast was present on the set at the time the fire started, but 100 production members were there. Luckily, none of them was injured, despite the strong explosion: so strong, in fact, that it required several fire trucks and about 40 minutes to put the fire out.
“The set of the final Harry Potter adventure has been destroyed in a blaze after filming of the final battle scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows went disastrously wrong. Apparently, explosives set light to scenery during the Battle of Hogwarts (where Harry raises an army of students to defend the school from the evil wizard Voldemort) and fire crews battled for 40 minutes to bring the flames under control. The estimated damage is around £100,000,” says the aforementioned movie-oriented publication.
“The main cast members – Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) – were not filming at the time, although about 100 crew members were on set at the time but escaped without injury. A fire service spokesman said: ‘There was a big battle scene involving a lot of pyrotechnics and explosions. There was a mocked-up castle made of timber, steel and plastic and somehow it caught alight.’ Warner Bros confirmed the incident and insisted production was still going ahead as planned,” Moviefone says.
As per reports in the British media, the “special effects guys” are devastated by the incident. An explosion scene like this one comes with inherent risks, but they know something like this should not have happened, unnamed sources tell the British tabs. On the bright side, as of now, nothing has changed as regards the release dates for the two “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” 3D films: part one comes out on November 19, 2010, while the second drops on July 15, 2011.