Paul Neal "Red" Adair (June 18, 1915 – August 7, 2004) was a renowned American oil field firefighter. He became world famous as an innovator in the highly specialized and extremely hazardous profession of extinguishing and capping blazing, erupting oil wells, both land-based and offshore. June 18 is the 169th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (170th in leap years), with 196 days remaining. ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Firefighter in full turn out gear with a pickhead axe. ... An oil platform is a large structure used to house workers and machinery needed to drill and then produce oil and natural gas in the ocean. ...

Adair was born in Houston, Texas, and began fighting oil well fires after returning from serving in a bomb disposal unit during World War II. Red started his career working for the MM Kinley Company, the "original" blowout/oil firefighting pioneer. He founded Red Adair Co., Inc., in 1959, and over his long career battled more than 2,000 land and offshore oil well, natural gas well, and similar spectacular fires. Red Adair gained global fame in 1962, when he tackled a fire at a gas field in the Sahara, a 450-foot (137m) pillar of flame, nicknamed the Devil's Cigarette Lighter. In 1988, he helped put out the Piper Alpha oil rig fire. At age 75, Adair took part in extinguishing the oil well fires in Kuwait set by retreating Iraqi troops after the Gulf War in 1991. In 1978, Adair's top lieutenants Asger "Boots" Hansen and Ed "Coots" Matthews left to found competitor Boots & Coots International Well Control, Inc. Boots & Coots bought its predecessor company in 1997, three years after Red Adair's retirement. Downtown Houston Uptown Houston City nickname: Space City Location in the state of Texas Founded   â€” Incorporated 1836 1837 Counties Harris County Fort Bend County Montgomery County Mayor Bill White Area   â€” Land   â€” Water 601. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Piper Alpha was a North Sea oil production platform operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Ltd and Texaco, which owned a 22 percent share. ... C Company, 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment, 1st UK Armoured Division The 1991 Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of 34 nations mandated by the United Nations and led by the United States. ...

Red Adair retired in 1993, sold his company to Global Industries. His top guys (Brian Krause, Raymond Henry, Rich Hatteberg) left and formed their own company, International Well Control (IWC). In 1997, IWC purchased the remnants of Boots and Coots and the company is now Boots & Coots/IWC.

The 1968 John Wayne movie Hellfighters was based upon the feats of Adair during the 1962 Sahara desert fire. See also: 1967 in film 1968 1969 in film 1960s in film years in film film Events October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts. ... John Wayne (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), nicknamed Duke, was an American film actor whose career spanned the evolutionary phase of American cinema, appearing in silent movies and talkies alike. ... The Hellfighters is a movie released in 1968 starring John Wayne, Katharine Ross, Jim Hutton, Bruce Cabot, and Vera Miles. ...

Fire at the Wellhead

Fire requires fuel, heat, and oxygen to burn (the fire triangle principle): In fighting a fire at a wellhead (the portion of the well at and just above the ground's surface), typically high explosives such as dynamite are used to 'snuff' the flame first. Doing so removes the 'heat' but the 'fuel' (the natural gas or oil) is still present, often a huge 'fountain' of oil surrounds the work area, showering fuel upon the working crew. The “triangle” illustrates the rule that in order to ignite and burn, a fire requires three elements — heat, fuel, and oxygen. ... Drilling The system of spools, valves and assorted adapters that provide pressure control of a production gas or oil well. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... Dynamite is an explosive based on the explosive potential of nitroglycerin using diatomaceous earth (Kieselguhr) as an absorbent. ...

After snuffing, the wellhead must be 'capped' to stop the flow of fuel. During this time, the fuel and oxygen required to create another inferno is present in copious amounts. At this perilous stage, one small spark (perhaps from a steel or iron tool striking a stone) or other heat source might re-ignite the fuel.

To prevent re-ignition, brass or bronze tools, which do not strike sparks, or paraffin coated tools are used during the capping process. Meticulous care is used to avoid heat and sparks, or any other ignition source. The explosive re-ignition of a wellhead may take the form of an extremely powerful explosion, possibly even worse than the original 'blowout'. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. ... Bronze figurine, found at Öland Bronze is the traditional name for a broad range of alloys of copper. ... Paraffin is a common name for a group of high molecular weight alkane hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2, where n is greater than about 20, discovered by Carl Reichenbach. ...

Due to recent advances in technology as well as enviromental concerns, many wells today are capped while they burn. The use of high powered water sprays and Purple K dry chemical (a potassium bicarbonate mixture) are used to extinguish the wells.

Quotes

• "It scares you: all the noise, the rattling, the shaking. But the look on everybody's face when you're finished and packing, it's the best smile in the world; and there's nobody hurt, and the well's under control." (describing a typical blowout experience)

• "Retire? I don't know what that word means. As long as a man is able to work and he's productive out there and he feels good — keep at it. I've got too many of my friends that retired and went home and got on a rocking chair, and about a year and a half later, I'm always going to the cemetery." (to reporters while working at the Kuwaiti oil well fires at the end of the Gulf War in 1991)

• "I've done made a deal with the devil. He said he's going to give me an air-conditioned place when I go down there, if I go there, so I won't put all the fires out." (in 1991, joking about afterlife alternatives)

External links

• Red Adair, world-renowned firefighter, dies – CNN.com, 8 August 2004
• Obituary: Red Adair - BBC News - August 8, 2004
• Obituary - Red Adair - The Guardian - 9 August, 2004