Visitors to the thrilling Backdraft attraction at Universal Studios in Hollywood endured double the heat when a real-life raging inferno swept through the park last weekend.
Normally visitors to the Backdraft attraction endure the hit movie's blazing inferno of heart-pounding heat and fury in a 10,000 degree blast of searing pyrotechnics and special effects excitement.
But when the real fire swept through Universal Studios, the temperature inside the Backdraft attraction doubled to 20,000 degrees.
Park officials credited the real fire with giving the dowager attraction much-needed cachet.
The tragedy reminded one long-time park official of the time an earthquake registering 3.4 on the Richter Scale struck at the very moment that 162 people were riding the park's Earthquake attraction, which simulates an authentic earthquake registering 8.3 on the Richter Scale. Inside the attraction, the combination of the real and the simulated quakes created an 11.7 Richter Scale reading, the highest ever recorded.
Similarly, in 1999 a real life tornado struck Universal's Orlando, Florida theme park while 52 people rode the Twister attraction, which simulates a real life twister with a Fujita Scale rating of F5. Inside the attraction, the combination of the real and simulated twisters produced the equivalent of an F10 twister, twice as powerful as any ever recorded.
