Backdraft
Reprinted from Birket Engineering News, July/August 1993

The Backdraft attraction opened in June of 1992 at Universal Studios Hollywood. Birket Engineering designed, assembled, installed, and commissioned the fire control system. The control system consisted of an Allen-Bradley PLC with over seven hundred I/O points communicating over a network with other non-fire control PLC's and an IBM PC clone desktop computer. Birket's responsibilities include effective management of the gas train, ignitors, air handlers, and sensors.

The attraction consists of a re-creation of the last fire scene in the movie Backdraft. During the 2 1/2 minute show, enough natural gas is released and ignited to generate over one million BTUs of heat in the confines of a 1500 sq-ft room. This room is also occupied by up to 75 guests. We believe that we were selected for this project on the basis of our reputation for having a thorough, reliable and safe design process.