LONGVIEW, TEXAS: Game Creek Video’s Liberty has been sidelined by fire. The 53-foot expando TV production unit caught fire on a Texas highway early Thursday morning. Pat Sullivan, owner and president of Game Creek said the flames were first noticed in a wheel well of the truck while it was in transit from Dallas to Orlando, Fla., around 3 a.m. Thursday. Sullivan said no injuries were reported.
The extent of the damage is still being assessed, he said, declining to provide details other than to say the fire was “pretty bad. It’s fair to say it was pretty serious.”
Game Creek of Hudson, N.H., has 23 trucks in its fleet, 11 of them production units. Liberty was one of the newer, more high-end trucks among the production fleet. The 53-foot, double-expando was outfitted for hi-def jobs, with the latest in production equipment, including a Grass Valley HD Kalypso, Pesa routing, Sony cameras, Vinten panheads, Canon lenses, several EVS channels, a Chyron Duet option, a Calrec Bluefin Alpha--the whole shebang.
Liberty was launched last August, deployed to Atlanta to cover college football for ESPN and ABC. Game Creek designed her; Sunbury, Ohio-based Gerling built her and Little Bay Broadcast Services of Madbury, N.H., integrated the truck.
High-end HD production trucks can cost upwards of $10 million, according to an industry expert. Ten HD long lenses alone can cost up to $1 million.
Liberty is now in a tow yard in Longview, Texas under the investigative eyes of Game Creek’s insurer. -- Deborah D. McAdams
