NEWS: WET Design headquarters burns down

[jedimaster1227]

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-sun-valley-wet-design-fire,0,1872272.story

 

A blown transformer may be to blame for a rapidly spreading fire that destroyed a building housing a famous water fountain design firm in Sun Valley Saturday morning.

 

According to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman David Ortiz, the fire was first reported around 3:18 a.m. at the WET Design building in the 10800 block of Sherman Way.

 

Firefighters arrived at the scene to find the single-story, 15,000 square foot building fully up in smoke.

 

Over 100 firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze after nearly an hour and a half.

 

The building serves as the headquarters for WET Design, which has created some of the most famous water fountains in the world, including the fountains at the Grove and Universal CityWalk, the dancing fountain at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas and the largest fountain in the world in Dubai.

 

Witnesses told KTLA that the fire may have been caused by a car that crashed into a power transformer, sending live wires into the building.

 

"Neighbors who saw it said a car came by careening down the street and hit one of these power poles and knocked the transformer off and it exploded," WET Design CEO and President Mark Fuller said.

 

"It was an extremely loud explosion," said Charles Brown, who lives nearby and was among those who called 911 when they saw the flames. Other witnesses said they could see, and smell the fire for miles.

 

According to Fuller, the company's former headquarters at Universal Studios also succumbed to a fire over a decade ago, causing them to move to their current location across the street from Bob Hope Airport.

 

"My first reaction," Fuller said, "was thank goodness nobody was in there and nobody was hurt."

 

No injuries were reported.

Edited December 9, 2012 by robbalvey

[SharkTums]

This is terrible...but something about WET burning, irony?

[SoCalCoasters]

That is truly saddening.

 

I really hope they had their data backed up on some kind of external sever, so that they didn't lose all those years of innovation.

 

Hopefully their insurance plan can get them back on their feet and back into the business ASAP.

 

VVVV You can blame Apple's wonderful autocorrect for that.

Edited December 9, 2012 by SoCalCoasters

[robbalvey]

I really hope they had their data backed up on some kind of external sever, so that they didn't loose all those years of innovation.

Yeah, I hope they had those servers tightly secured to the wall...

 

[cfc]

This is terrible...but something about WET burning, irony?

 

The irony would be complete if the building sprinkler system failed to work.

[Wes]

VVVV You can blame Apple's wonderful autocorrect for that.

 

Why would Apple's autocorrect change lose to loose?

[angryemobeaver]

The building on fire still looks prettier than the World of Color.

[triggernel]

VVVV You can blame Apple's wonderful autocorrect for that.

 

Why would Apple's autocorrect change lose to loose?

 

Because it does... It's not uncommon.

[Justice]

WET didn't work on WoC FYI.

 

However, I hope this won't be a severe set back on their future projects.