The flames, brought under control in the afternoon, did not cause any victims or injuries and would have caused, according to the Italian authorities, only minor damage.
The Italian Renaissance almost went up in smoke on Monday. At least a small section of the quattrocento reproduced in the outskirts of Rome. A fire broke out on 1er August in the legendary Cinecittà studios, making people fear the worst in this period of historic drought. Despite impressive images showing a plume of black smoke rising from the monumental Florentine scenography, the studios and the fire brigade declared at the end of the afternoon that the accident had caused only a light material toll.
“The fire has been extinguished. There are no injuries, no poisoning, no serious material damage,” Studios spokesperson Marlon Pellegrini said in a statement. The fire, which gave off thick black smoke visible for several kilometers, started in the afternoon on a papier-mâché tray recreating Renaissance Florence. Completely destroyed, the set was being dismantled, explained the firefighters on Twitter.
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A future European hub
This is not the first accident that has caused a small portion of the studios to go up in smoke. In 2007, a spectacular fire ravaged a warehouse housing sets for the British-American television blockbuster Rome recounting the birth of the Roman Empire. Many classic masterpieces were shot in the “cinema city” as Ben Hur (1959) by William Wyler and the DolceVita (1960) by Federico Fellini.
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In the 1970s, the boom in television productions and the crisis in cinematographic productions had put an end to the golden age of Cinecittà, which would then experience a long crossing of the desert. Privatized, then returned to public control in 2017, the studios once again hosted foreign productions from the early 2000s, without however ever regaining their original luster.
The management of Cinecittà, thus unveiled last year a development plan of 260 million euros with the ambition to become by 2026 “an important European cinematographic pole”, betting on series and TV programs. This plan provides in particular for the doubling of the surface area of the studios, the creation and renovation of sets, the construction of an indoor swimming pool and a theater with a 360° green screen.
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