X-Files set burns
Three-alarm fire guts Vancouver's Shavick studios

 Ian Mulgrew
 National Post

 VANCOUVER - Part of Canadian film and TV history
went up in smoke last week as most of
 Shavick Entertainment's Vancouver studios were
gutted by a fire that consumed
 everything from standing sets seen by millions to
priceless mementoes of a
 quarter-century career.

 A courtroom, police station and a make-believe 
alley familiar to viewers of The Commish,
 The X-Files and other television shows, original
Ninja Turtle sets, a huge costume
 department that included authentic L.A. police
uniforms, two sound stages, fake signage,
 phony tombstones, a green screen facility for
special effects, a video library of stock
 shots and $100,000 worth of newly built sets were
incinerated.

 Some 50 films and hundreds of hours of television
series have been shot in the buildings
 clustered in the warehouse district at Second Avenue
and Quebec Street.

 Enjoying a thick, end-of-day cigar on his Bayshore
balcony overlooking Coal Harbour,
 company chairman James Shavick compared the
experience to losing his father.

 "The sense of loss is dramatic," a still-shaken
Shavick said. "I lost my dad and had to
 make decisions about life support and a number of
other things. It was a similar eerie
 feeling. A sense of emptiness. I've not discussed
this with anyone -- you're the only one
 I'm going to discuss it with. I've tried to remain
strong and upbeat for my staff."

 Among the irreplaceable items he lost was the French
poster for his first film, Two
 Solitudes, starring Stacy Keach, which was a result
of Shavick studying with the book's
 author, Hugh MacLennan.

 "It's the only thing I have left from that picture
and it burned," he lamented. "That and
 original memorabilia from every movie I've ever done
-- 23, 24 years of stuff. It's very
 sad, an end of an era, but life goes on. It could
have been far worse. People could have
 been in the building."

 The June 25 fire was an uncommonly spectacular
three-alarm blaze that drew the 38
 firefighters on duty and another 20 called from
home. Investigators have determined the
 blaze was most likely caused by the improper
disposal of stain-soaked rags.
Marlene

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