Backdraft Visitors Hit by Deluge

Maybe they should have called it Backwash.

Visitors to the Backdraft show at Universal Studios Hollywood got drenched Thursday afternoon when a pyrotechnic display accidentally triggered a powerful sprinkler system.

The sprinklers cut loose during the show’s finale, as 145 visitors standing on a balcony watched the warehouse below them explode into flames. No injuries were reported, but the audience was sprayed by a pipe system that pumps 1,000 gallons of water per minute.

“They refer to it as a deluge because it’s a massive amount of water,” said a park employee who asked not to be identified. “The system is full of recycled water that has been sitting in pipes for a long time so it came out like soot. Their clothes were black.”

Universal executives said they did not know whether any visitors had their clothes soiled. But spokesman Jim Yeager said those who were soaked were given dry shirts and shorts from a gift shop, and some were taken to the Sheraton Universal Hotel for showers.

The attraction, based on Ron Howard’s 1991 movie about firefighters, produces a frenzy of gas-fed flames and explosions that mushroom toward the ceiling, throwing off 110-degree gusts. By nature, it requires a sensitive and quickly responsive safety system, Yeager said.

Thursday’s dousing comes on the heels of a more serious July 1 incident in which the newly opened Jurassic Park attraction showered several boatloads of riders with hydraulic fluid. Four visitors complained of skin and eye irritation and were treated at a nearby emergency room.

Jurassic Park was reopened later that same day. Backdraft, shut down immediately after Thursday’s 1 p.m. incident, was expected to reopen as early as last night