Blaze Near Pyrotechnics Show Proves Where There’s Fire, There’s Fire : Universal Studios: A burning duct in the Backdraft attraction goes almost unnoticed by 500 tourists.

Maybe they didn’t see the fire because of all the flames.

As 500 tourists watched the staged conflagration at the “Backdraft” attraction at Universal Studios on Thursday, real firefighters were there too--knocking down a genuine fire that erupted in the building’s air-conditioning ducts.

An air-conditioning contractor working on the roof accidentally started the blaze about 1:45 p.m. while soldering copper pipe, county fire officials said.

In the process, sparks fell into the cardboard air-conditioning ducts and started a fire that blew thick black smoke into the popular attraction as the capacity crowd watched.

There was no panic. Most apparently had no idea what was happening.

“Some of them may have thought it was part of the attraction,” Inspector Robert Lockett of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said with a slight chuckle. “Isn’t that ironic?

“It could be they couldn’t see the real fire because of the staged fire,” Lockett said of the tourists.

The attraction, which opened in July, allows visitors to step into a sound stage, watch it burst into flames and partially destruct.

The flames reach 2,000 degrees, but the audiences are protected by a veil of water.

The crowd inside the attraction at Stage 34 and an additional 300 or so people in the vicinity were evacuated to other parts of the theme park, and “Backdraft” was closed for the rest of the day, Universal spokeswoman Joan Bullard said.

She said the evacuation was orderly, and the fire was small and confined mostly to the roof.

“There was a whole lot more fire inside the attraction than outside” in the ducts, Bullard said. She said the $10-million attraction will reopen today, and emphasized that the fire was not related to the flame jets that create an inferno inside the building.

The fire, which caused an estimated $150,000 in damage, was put out within 15 minutes by county firefighters stationed at Universal Studios. As the crowd was being evacuated, firefighters could be seen pouring water onto smoking air-conditioning equipment on the building’s roof.

The air-conditioning contractor was taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank and treated for smoke inhalation.

The movie on which the attraction was based is about two Chicago firefighters battling a series of spectacular blazes ultimately found to have been set by a firefighter.

A 1990 arson fire at Universal Studios caused $25 million in damage to movie sets and other property, destroying three acres of the back lot. A former security guard was sentenced in January to four years in prison after pleading guilty to arson.