03/02/91 through 11/06/91

Kuwait was stripped and set on fire by the retreating Iraqi troops during the final days of the Gulf War. Black smoke filled the sky and raging fires, fueled by rich oil reserves, covered the desert landscape and presented a monumental firefighting operation such as the world had never previously witnessed.

Red Adair's first firefighting team entered Kuwait in early March, 1991. Fires burned from horizon to horizon - north, south, east and west. Smoke, along with the lack of distinguishable landmarks, made it impossible to get any sense of direction. The living accommodations were primitive at best. Red and his teams were housed in the Ahmadi House which, like all the other buildings in Kuwait, had been ransacked by the Iraqi soldiers. The rooms were almost bare with no heating or air conditioning, no running water and no mess hall. They would do without showers until the plumbing was repaired and would eat at Camp Freedom with the U.S. military until the mess hall could be made operational.

The two major problems Red faced in Kuwait were lack of equipment and lack of water. Cranes to lift the wellheads, backhoes to dig around the wellheads, dozers to build roads and move debris and equipment to fight the fires were in short supply and desperately needed for the firefighting to begin in earnest. Existing pipelines used to carry oil from gathering stations in the oilfields to the Persian Gulf were to be reversed to carry saltwater from the Gulf back to the oilfields to fight the fires. It was a good plan, but the logistical problems involved in pumping the 1.5 billion gallons of water that was eventually used to fight the fires slowed the flow of water to a trickle.

On June 11, 1991 Red flew to Washington D.C. to testify before the Gulf Pollution Task Force concerning the problems he faced in Kuwait. By this time Red had two firefighting teams in Kuwait and Red testified about the lack of water and equipment, his concerns about medical assistance for his men and the landmines scattered about the Kuwaiti countryside. Red showed a dramatic slide presentation demonstrating some of the firefighting in Kuwait and giving the Task Force a lesson in well control.

Red explained that extinguishing the fire is not the most difficult part of well control. It's what you do after the fire is out that is dangerous. As long as the well is blowing, there is a possibility the well could flash and reignite, injuring or killing everyone on location. This dangerous potential is why you can't wait for water, or to borrow equipment from the next location. Everything has to be in place to cap the well once the fire is out. The less time spent capping the well after the fire is out, the less likely someone gets hurt.

Red was invited to meet with President George Bush the following day to again express his concerns with the firefighting operations in Kuwait. President Bush listened to Red's concerns and pledged to give his support to help solve the logistical problems. By the beginning of July, the much needed equipment began rolling into Kuwait and by mid-July, Red was requested to deploy a third firefighting team to Kuwait.

With the equipment Red needed in place and water being pumped from the Persian Gulf to the oilfields, the firefighting became like an assembly line. As the firefighters worked on one well, the roads were built and reservoirs dug at the next. By August, Red's crews had moved from the Ahmadi to the Burgan fields. Burgan had the largest production wells of any of the fields in Kuwait and would prove to be some of the toughest because of the build up of coke, or solidified oil, around the wellheads. The coke, which sometimes covered acres around the well, would have to be dug away from the wellhead before the well could be capped.

By October 7, a total of 542 wells had been killed and only 86 wells remained burning in the Burgan field. As the other firefighting companies finished the smaller fields in the north and west, they were moved to the Burgan. The firefighting proceeded at an amazing pace and on October 28, Red's crews extinguished their last well. The last well burning in Kuwait was ceremoniously extinguished by the emir of Kuwait on November 6, 1991.

Red is proud of the role he played in killing the oilwell fires of Kuwait. He is proud of his men and the outstanding work they performed under the most primitive of conditions. He is also proud of all the people who worked so diligently to help him do his job quickly, accurately and, most of all, safely. Red gives thanks that he and his men all returned safely to their families and loved ones.

In addition to Kuwait, Red and his men also performed sixteen other jobs in 1991 which took them to India, Venezuela, Nigeria, Wyoming, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.

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