BRISTOL, England -- The company behind the new "Wallace and Gromit" film said Monday its "entire history" has been destroyed in a fire at a warehouse containing props and sets.

The roof and three interior walls of the Aardman Animations building in Bristol, west England collapsed after the blaze tore through the Victorian building, fire officials said

The fire broke out at about 5:30 a.m. (0430 GMT), with flames reaching 100 feet into the air. The cause of the blaze was being investigated.

A spokesman for Aardman said the building housed props and sets from the company's history, including its first three "Wallace and Gromit" films.

No one was in the building when the fire broke out. Aardman said the sets and props from its latest film, "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," were not caught in the blaze.

Aardman has used stop-motion clay animation to create a series of acclaimed films, including three shorts featuring cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his resourceful dog Gromit.

The sets from those shorts -- "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave" -- are all thought to have been destroyed, along with those from "Chicken Run" -- Aardman's first feature-length release.

"Curse of the Were-Rabbit," Wallace and Gromit's first full-length feature, was released in the United States on Friday and topped the U.S. box office over the weekend. (Full story)

"Today was supposed to be a day of celebration, with the news that 'Wallace and Gromit' had gone in at No. 1 at the U.S. box office, but instead our whole history has been wiped out," Aardman spokesman Arthur Sheriff said. "It's turned out to be a terrible day."