Hogwarts is still standing! On Friday, a fire broke out on the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, which are being filmed simultaneously at Leavesden Studios in London, and British news outlets and some other news sources have been reporting that the fire "destroyed" much of the Hogwarts set. According to a spokesperson for the Harry Potter films this is simply not true. We happened to be on the set of the new film on today and found out the truth about the fire from the film's spokesperson. "Basically second unit was filming Friday evening on the back lot. They were filming a big effect from the battle scene, which involved some big special effects. There was no principle cast on the set at all or indeed even in the studio," confirmed the spokesperson. "There was a small fire as a result of these effects, which was mainly handled by our in-house fire brigade but as a precaution we called out the local fire brigade. The fire was put out soon afterward. I think it was an hour but I'm not exactly sure but it was soon. It was put out almost immediately. There was no damage and nobody was hurt. There was no damage to any equipment what so ever and filming was back to normal today."

We followed up by asking the spokesperson if they kept the cameras rolling to catch the fire? "Yes, We got it all of course." The spokesperson also confirmed that that footage would probably end up being used in the film. We continued by asking which set was burned and exactly how much was destroyed? "It was the exterior courtyard set. It was an isolated set so it wasn't a case of a lot of sets being effected it was just one set," the spokesperson also confirmed. "On a positive, the set was going to need to be rebuilt anyway because what happens with the sets is that you will have it in a state of disrepair because its been shot for the battle and then you have to rebuild it because we work on an actors availability not continuity, so it was going to have to be rebuilt anyways. It's not as terrible as it sounds." The spokesperson concluded by saying, "Leavesden Studios was still standing (on Monday) and we weren't walking through embers."

We will bring you more on this story as it happens and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I is scheduled for release on November 19th, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II is scheduled for release on July 15th, 2011.