Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Heh. Heh. Heh. fire - Fire - FIRE


When I was a kid, I saw the movie Hellfighters starring John Wayne.  It was a film loosely based on the life of Red Adair and his team of oil well firefighters.  I was a kid and any movie with fire and explosives was worth a look.  Now, I find myself in Kuwait, where over 700 oil well fires were put out in a 7 month period by thousands oil well firefighters.  That is not without its own allure.

I never saw the movie Fires of Kuwait until yesterday.  It is an interesting and short documentary on how they put out the 700 oil well fires that were started on the orders of  Saddam Hussein as the Iraqi troops retreated in defeat after their invasion of Kuwait.  These guys walked into the job thinking it would take 10 years to get all the fires out.  

My first trip to Kuwait was after the fires had been put out, but I will tell you the country smelled like burning oil to me every time I went there for the next 3 years.  So,  click on the link and give the movie a look.


By the way,  they not only use explosives,  they also use two jet engines mounted on an old Soviet T34 tank.  





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