Items feared lost in the fire include many of the original models for Morph, Creature Comforts and the Wallace and Gromit films, which had been painstakingly created.  But as smoke still billowed from the ruins of the warehouse more than seven hours after the blaze began, the wit that has characterised Aardman was still present.  Asked what Wallace would have done, Mr Argo said: "There would have been a 'sprinklomatic' system in place detecting smoke well in advance of any flames."  Ninety firemen tackled the fire, which began at about 5.30am. Flames reached 100ft and the roof and two floors collapsed. There was nobody in the building at the time.  The company said that the sets and models from the Curse of the Were-Rabbit were safe, as they were either on display at a Bristol exhibition or at the production company's headquarters in the city. But the sets from A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave were thought to have been destroyed, along with some from Chicken Run, Aardman's first feature-length release.  Storyboards and some of the many awards that the company has accumulated were also lost. However, none of the negatives from films was affected.  Mr Argo said the fire had cast a shadow over a day when the company should have been celebrating.  He said: "It is a bittersweet day. We were all meant to be celebrating the fact that Wallace and Gromit went straight in at number one in the US box office and is proving to be a huge success.  "Yet we came in to find this news this morning. It is a dreadful blow. Aardman has been at the forefront of British animation and much of it has now been destroyed."  He added: "One of the big things that has gone is the pie machine from the Chicken Run movie, which was one of the largest pieces of set we have kept.  "It took months to research, develop and build at huge cost and was the centrepiece of many of our exhibitions over the years."  Another item that had been destroyed was the MTV music award for Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer video, which was made by Aardman.  Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit, said it was "dreadful news" for the company. However, he added that it was "not a big deal" compared with the earthquake in Pakistan.  Mr Argo said it was impossible to put a price on the items that had been lost. "To build these models takes thousands of pounds to develop and construct."  Assistant chief fire officer Bill Feeley said the interior of the building appeared to have been gutted but there was a chance that some of the contents had survived. He added that it was too early to determine the cause.  Aardman Animations was set up by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in Bristol in 1976. A year later they created the "claymation" character Morph. The company has since produced pop videos, adverts and short and feature-length films. Nick Park joined the company in 1985.  Aardman has won three Oscars, two for the Wallace and Gromit films The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, and one for the Creature Comforts short film.  The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit went to the top of the American releases at the weekend. It took $16.1 million (£9.1 million) in its first week on release compared with the $10.8 million (£6.1 million) pulled in by its closest rival, the thriller Flightplan, which stars Jodie Foster.
Aardman Animations, the company behind Wallace  and Gromit, is mourning the loss of most of its history after its Victorian warehouse went up in flames.