Fire Official Knew About Explosives on ‘Twilight’ Set

A Los Angeles County fire safety officer employed on the “Twilight Zone” film testified Monday that he was told before the filming of a subsequently fatal Vietnam battle scene that special-effects explosives had been placed in the village movie set.

Jack Rimmer, testifying in the involuntary manslaughter trial of film director John Landis and four associates, said he had not been told by his supervisors that such explosives were not to be placed in the village. He also said he had voiced no complaints that night about the manner in which the scene was to be filmed.

Rimmer’s testimony appeared to conflict with recent testimony by county Fire Inspector De Witt Morgan, who said he had granted a safety permit on the condition that no explosives be ignited in the village.

Star Vic Morrow and two child actors died in the 1982 filming accident when they were struck by a low-flying helicopter that spun out of control after it was hit by a fireball.

The prosecution contends that the defendants exhibited gross negligence by placing the helicopter, explosives and actors in the same scene. The defense counters that the accident was unforeseeable because a special-effects employee, granted immunity by the prosecution, mistakenly set off the explosives before the helicopter was out of the way.

In other testimony Monday, county Fire Battalion Chief Gary Nelson testified that he found previously missing memos, written by Rimmer and other firefighters on the film set, in his files last week.

Defense attorneys have contended outside court that fire officials engaged in a cover-up of a potentially embarrassing memo written by Fire Safety Officer Richard Ebentheuer after the accident. In the memo, Ebentheuer wrote that he had predicted the filming accident shortly before it occurred but did not warn the film makers.