By Kyle Eustice • June 11, 2019

In the early morning hours of June 1, 2008, a fire erupted at Universal Studios Hollywood. The flames reached Building 6197 — also known as the video vault — which was home to videotapes, film reels and a library of master sound recordings owned by Universal Music Group.

According to an article published by The New York Times Magazine, hundreds of thousands of master recordings perished in the fire, information that wasn’t originally disclosed.

At the time, Universal Studio said the theme park’s “King Kong” attraction and a video vault that contained copies of old works were the only things to succumb to the blaze. But in a confidential report from Universal Music Group written in 2009, they admit roughly 500,000 song titles were destroyed.

In an internal assessment from that same year, they also said, “Lost in the fire was, undoubtedly, a huge musical heritage.”

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