Red Adair

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.

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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.

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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.

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The 1968 John Wayne movie Hellfighters was based upon the feats of Adair during the 1962 Sahara desert fire.

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June 18: June 18 is the 169th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (170th in leap years), with 196 days remaining....

1915: 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar)....

August 7: August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining. There are 94 days in North Hemisphere summer, South Hemisphere winter. The Northern Hemisphere is considered to be halfway through the summer on August 7....

Red Adair related Images and Photos (experimental)

Red	Red	Red	Imagine (Red)
Red I	Red M&M	Red II	Red II
Red III	Red Fox	Red Eye	Red Sky