Universal Tours Fires Up Its Backdraft : Theme parks: The attraction, based on the firefighting movie, replicates a raging inferno, but safety precautions are built in.

First there was Universal Pictures’ “Jaws” the movie, then Universal Studios Tours’ Jaws the ride. You saw “Earthquake,” and later there came Earthquake the attraction. After “E.T.” and the 1976 “King Kong”--bingo, E.T. and King Kong rides.

Now, in the latest sequel of Hollywood-meets-the-tourist-dollar, Universal Studios Hollywood presents Backdraft, a behind-the-scenes attraction based on the studio’s 1991 firefighting movie. The $10-million Backdraft is one of several new attractions that theme parks around the nation, faced with depressed attendance figures, are opening this summer in an attempt to lure visitors.

“It’s more dense and more complex than any other attraction we’ve done,” said Ron Bension, president of MCA Recreation Services, the division of MCA Inc. that oversees Universal Studio Tours locations in Hollywood and Orlando, Fla.

During a recent visit to Backdraft, Bension called it “as realistic as the film . . . we could shoot a film in here.” He said the design was inspired by the Oscar-nominated effects created for the movie.

Next Wednesday is the day they fire up this very hot new attraction. And that’s no hype: Some effects, bursting into flames only dozens of feet away from viewers, will reach 2,000 degrees.

Backdraft takes place inside a soundstage on Universal’s back lot. Visitors will first arrive on the movie-set-like interior of a Chicago firehouse. On a giant screen, they’ll watch the director and two of the stars of the Ron Howard film, Kurt Russell and Scott Glenn, talk about fire dangers.

Then they’ll experience an unusual, ominous corkscrew flame and learn the meaning of backdraft--a firefighters’ term for the way a smoking fire that appears to be retreating explodes when it receives a supply of oxygen.

After that, alarms sound and red lights whirl. And, just like in the movie, the climactic part of the attraction will be a big warehouse inferno.

During this part of the show, visitors will move to a balcony inside a fireproof warehouse that has been constructed within the soundstage. From there they will see and hear the fire ignite in a rear office and watch it spread with a frenzy, setting off explosions, sending embers flying, shooting balls of fire and rupturing fuel lines. The heat forces metal barrels to take off like rockets, and cause parts of the “structure” to “collapse.”

In all, there will be some 40 special effects occurring and overlapping during the course of the fire, according to project manager Nick Drobnis. The flames are so profuse that Universal will consume 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas per show--or about as much as a typical home uses in one year--for each of the 200 shows a day. Drobnis said the demand is so large that the Southern California Gas Co. installed a special gas line to the soundstage.

Environmentalists may wonder about the consumption of so much natural gas, or question if the burning will further pollute the air. But natural gas is a relatively clean-burning fuel and Universal says nothing in the show actually is set on fire.

At the heart of the inferno, staged inside a “fire-proof” concrete building, 90 feet by 60 feet by 40 feet, temperatures will feel like a furnace.

But studio engineers have designed a cooled “air” curtain to shield visitors--who will stand in an elevated viewing gallery--from most of the heat.

To add to the safety, a ventilation system will replace all the air inside--200,000 cubic feet of air--every minute. And the building doesn’t merely have typical fire “sprinklers” for protection, it has what Drobnis calls the “deluge” system.

The wear and tear on Backdraft posed particular problems, said David Codiga, the executive director for planning and development at the Hollywood site. “Imagine creating effects to withstand this kind of heat 200 times a day,” Codiga noted.

He said the walls and ceiling of the warehouse-within-a-soundstage, are finished with an inch of a coating material used in industrial refineries.

“My feeling is that (the attraction) is doubly great,” said Glenn, who played a fireman in the movie. “Your adrenalin count will rise to the ceiling from the thrills and chills. But at the same time you’ll be able, in a small way, to appreciate what firemen do for us everyday.”

Glenn said before he made “Backdraft” his feeling about the fire department was always “abstract.” Now, he said, “I understand what they go through . . . they just saved a vast portion of Los Angeles. Now when I hear a siren, I think of the people who are risking their lives.”

Backdraft, the attraction, is the latest example of the synergy that Universal has developed between its filmed entertainment division and its theme parks. The process, Bension acknowledges, allows Universal the opportunity to exploit its movies beyond the theatrical, home video and music markets.

At most theme parks, movies are among the most popular sources of new attractions. Some of Time Warner’s Six Flags theme parks, including Magic Mountain north of Los Angeles, opened Batman shows this summer, based on the comic-book character and the Warner Bros. movies. Disney’s parks have debuted live Beauty and the Beast shows. Universal opened the E.T. Adventure in its Orlando, Fla., attraction in 1990, and another at the Hollywood park last summer at a cost of $40 million each.

Next summer, the Universal Hollywood theme park will add a Back to the Future ride at an estimated investment of $60 million. The ride, which creates an illusion of zooming through time using film and motion-simulated effects that envelope the viewer, already has opened in Orlando.