Mirage volcano still leaves crowds awestruck

People squeeze together on the sidewalk in front of The Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Blvd. South, to watch a little bit of Strip magic in the form of an erupting "volcano."

The crowd ooohs and ahhs on a recent Friday as fireballs shoot 12 feet into the sky and flames dance to music atop what seems like a lake of lava.

"Is that real fire?" John, a tourist from Virginia, asks no one in particular. He declined to give his last name. He then answers his own question when he feels the heat. "Yep, it sure is."

Since the feature debuted with the hotel's opening in 1989, the volcano has been entertaining and even mystifying crowds with a combination of water and fire, two things that usually don't go together.

"It was a challenge then and it still is a challenge trying to make it work the way it should work," says Kurt Arend, the hotel's outside service lead engineer.

For the past 12 years, Arend has worked on the volcano, first as a volcano technician and now as the boss of an eight-man crew.

"A lot of people ask me: 'You work in a volcano? What is there to do in a volcano?' If they only knew," Arend says.

Someone's got to make the lava and the smoke and the fire. That falls to Arend and his crew who operate and maintain the equipment that does the special effects that make this mound of fake rock come to life several times a day.

Design firm WET, which created Bellagio's fountains, also designed the volcano. In 2008, the attraction underwent a $25 million remodel, giving it more effects and setting the show to music composed by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and musician Zakir Hussain. Several pieces of equipment that make the volcano erupt also are used in the Fountains of Bellagio.

The volcano features 152 devices that make fire. The original volcano had only 38, Arend says. Shooters and oarsmen, which are used to shoot water in the air in the Bellagio fountains, shoot fire into the air in the volcano.

While they perform maintenance and repair daily, the volcano crew's biggest problem has feathers and can fly. Ducks hang out in the water or fly overhead, which can cause the automatic safety feature to shut down the volcano.

As crazy as it sounds, people sometimes try to get close to the volcano. An intrusion fence stops the show immediately if someone breaches it. Wind also is an issue. If winds gust to more than 10 mph, the show is scrubbed, as dictated by the fire department.

Guests who can't figure out how it works occasionally ask Arend where he gets the lava.

"I tell them I truck it in," he says with a laugh.

Of course, it's not real lava coming out of the top, but if people think it is, they must be doing something right, he adds. It's actually water that's backlit with colored lights, giving it a red hue.

The volcano has become an icon and Arend loves working on it. Recently, he was a hit at his daughter's fourth-grade career day.

"There's not too many people in the world who work on a volcano," he says. "Everybody wants to play with fire."

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.