On a day when Aardman Animaton planned on celebrating this weekend’s box office success, things went sour when a warehouse used to store props and sets from past projects caught fire this morning in Bristol, England, according to CNN. No one was in the building at the time and no one was hurt. Sets and props from The Morph Files, Creature Comforts, Wallace and Gromit shorts A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave, and Aardman’s first feature-length film Chicken Run, were among those housed in the warehouse and thought to have been destroyed. Those from The Curse of the Were-Rabbit were not in the blaze. Aardman spokesman Arthur Sheriff said, “Today was supposed to be a day of celebration, with the news that Wallace and Gromit had gone in at No. 1 at the U.S. box office, but instead our whole history has been wiped out. It’s turned out to be a terrible day”. Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park, however looked at the fire in light of the horrific earthquake in South Asia last week and said, “Even though it is a precious and nostalgic collection and valuable to the company, in light of other tragedies, today isn’t a big deal”.

UPDATE: Aardman has released a statement about the fire and extent of the damage.

Fire destroys historical Aardman artefacts

On the day that Aardman celebrate a chart-topping opening weekend in the US with Wallace & Gromit The Curse of the Were-rabbit, news of a fire at our storage unit in Bristol has been devastating.

The facility used to store sets, awards, and historical artefacts, is not a part of the Aardman studio, and we are glad to report that no Aardman staff have been affected. However, we have lost a number of irreplaceable storyboards, awards, props and pieces of film memorabilia from our 30 year history.

None of the material from the new Wallace & Gromit film The Curse of the Wererabbit was in storage at the time, but we have lost many original sets from Chicken Run, Creature Comforts, and the three Wallace & Gromit short films, that were used for reference and toured around the world for exhibition.

This will not in any way affect existing or future Aardman productions as 100% of sets and props are purpose built for each production.