Paul Neal "Red" Adair (June 18, 1915 – August 7, 2004) [1][2] [3] 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.
Adair was born in Houston, Texas, and attended Reagan High School. He 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
nicknamed the Devil's Cigarette Lighter, a 450-foot (137 m) pillar of flame. 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.
Red Adair retired in 1993, and sold his company The Red Adair
Company to Global Industries. [4] His top employees
(Brian Krause, Raymond Henry, Rich Hatteberg) left in 1994 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.
The History Channel's Modern
Marvels episode on "Oil Well Firefighting" was one of Adair's last interviews prior to his 2004 death. The episode
aired after Adair's death and was dedicated in his memory as a result.
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)
References
- ^ Obituary: Red Adair - BBC News - August 8, 2004
- ^ Obituary - Red Adair - The Guardian -
9 August, 2004
- ^ Official Site of Red Adair
- ^ "Boots and Coots Roots" at Boots and Coots/IWC
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