Surprised nobody seems to have posted this yet, as he was from Houston...this even made the news in Germany. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-08-08-adair-obit_x.htm Red Adair, 89, oil well firefighter, dies HOUSTON (AP) — Oil field firefighter Paul N. "Red" Adair, who was instrumental in capping Kuwaiti oil wells set ablaze by Iraq and was immortalized by John Wayne in a movie based on his life, has died at the age of 89. Red Adair, who fought oil well fires including those in Kuwait after the first Gulf War, died Saturday at the age of 89. AP Photo Adair, who boasted that none of his employees ever suffered a serious injury fighting hundreds of dangerous well fires around the world, died Saturday of natural causes at a Houston hospital, his daughter, Robyn Adair, told The Associated Press. Adair revolutionized the science of snuffing and controlling wells spewing high-pressure jets of oil and gas, using explosives, water cannons, bulldozers, drilling mud and concrete. "It scares you: all the noise, the rattling, the shaking," Adair once said, describing a blowout. "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." His daring and his reputation for having never met a blowout he couldn't cap earned him the nickname "Hellfighter." That inspired the title of the 1968 Wayne movie based on his life, "The Hellfighters." "That's one of the best honors in the world: To have The Duke play you in a movie," Adair said. He founded Red Adair Co. Inc. in 1959 and is credited with battling more than 2,000 land and offshore oil well fires, including the hundreds of wells set afire when the Iraqi army retreated from Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. He proudly spent his 76th birthday in Kuwait clad in his trademark red overalls, swinging valves into place atop out-of-control wells. "Retire? I don't know what that word means," he told reporters at the time. "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." Adair, who finally did retire in 1994 and sold his company, was instrumental in expediting the shipment of crucial supplies and equipment to Kuwait by testifying before the Gulf Pollution Task Force and meeting with then-President George H.W. Bush about the logistics of the firefighting operation. Adair's teams were among the first of 27 teams from 16 countries that spent eight months capping 732 Kuwaiti wells. Thanks in part to his expertise, an operation expected to last three to five years was completed in nine months, saving millions of barrels of oil and stopping an intercontinental air pollution disaster. However, he said government red tape hindered the process. "It's ridiculous. I've been doing this for 50 years and I've never been in a situation like this before in my life where it goes through so many changes of command to get the equipment we need," said Adair. "You need one man at the top so if I say I need 19 bulldozers ... I get 19 bulldozers." His death-defying feats included battling the July 1988 explosion of the Piper Alpha platform that killed 167 men in the stormy North Sea, 120 miles off the coast of Scotland. Adair, who never showed fear in life, joked in 1991 that the hereafter would be no different. "I've done made a deal with the devil," Adair said. "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."
I used to work for an answering service back in the mid-90's and Red was one of our customers. He was a very friendly guy as was his whole staff. He was always pleasant and polite when he called us.
Didn't a quote of Cotton Fitzimmons', about Cotton being the "Red Adair or the NBA," just appear in SI? I'd never heard of the guy until reading that quote last week. Creepy.
This makes me very sad. It's the end of an era. A Houston icon is gone. In order to add a little levity, Red Adair is the punchline to a really good joke... A wealthy Texan dies and goes to the pearly gates. St. Peter showed him all the wonders of heaven, but nothing could compare to the Lone Star state in the man's eyes. Finally, St. Peter takes him to the edge of hell. He has the man look down into the fires of hell and asks "You have anything like that in Texas?" The man said "No...but I know a good 'ol boy down in Houston who could put it out."
I just watched a show on the History Channel the night before last about oil well fires, that featured Adair, as well as Boots & Coots. It was cool how you could trade the lineage of the oil well firefighting history back to the turn of the century using only a handful of people. It started out with the Kinley Brothers, who hired Adair. One of the Kinley's died in an on-site accident, and then Adair left to form his own company, along with Boots & Coots, who then left Adair to form their own company.
