名人轶事22 Red Adair

By Jill Moss

Broadcast: October 31, 2004

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This is Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English.

Today we tell about Red Adair. He was famous for putting out dangerous oil

well fires around the world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Paul Neal Adair was born in Houston, Texas in nineteen fifteen. He was one of

five sons of a metal worker. He also had three sisters. While growing up, he

became known as Red Adair because his hair was bright red. The color became a

trademark for Adair. He wore red clothes and red boots. He drove a red car,

and his crew members used red trucks and red equipment.

As a young man, Red Adair dropped out of high school to help support his

family. He worked as a laborer for several different companies. In nineteen

thirty-eight, Adair got his first oil-related job with the Otis Pressure

Control Company.

VOICE TWO:

During World War Two, Adair served on a trained army team that removed and

destroyed bombs. After the war, he returned to Houston and took a job with

Myron Kinley. At the time, Kinley was the leader in putting out fires in oil

wells. Red Adair worked with Myron Kinley for fourteen years. But in nineteen

fifty-nine, Adair started his own company.

During his thirty-six years in business, Red Adair and his crews battled more

than two thousand fires all over the world. Some were on land. Others were on

ocean oil-drilling structures. Some fires were in burning oil wells. Others

were in natural gas wells.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Red Adair was a leader in a specialized and extremely dangerous profession.

Putting out oil well fires can be difficult. This is because oil well fires

are extinguished, or put out, at the wellhead just above ground. Normally,

explosives are used to stop the fire from burning. The explosion robs the

fire of oxygen. But, once the fire is out, the well still needs to be

covered, or capped, to stop the flow of oil. This is the most dangerous part

of the process. Any new heat or fire could cause the leaking well and the

surrounding area to explode.

VOICE TWO:

Red Adair developed modern methods to extinguish and cover burning oil wells.

They became known in the industry as Wild Well Control techniques. In

addition to explosives, the techniques involved large amounts of water and

dirt. Adair also developed special equipment made of bronze metal to help

extinguish oil well fires. The modern tools and his Wild Well Control

techniques earned Red Adair and his crews the honor of being called the "best

in the business."

Red Adair was known for not being afraid. He was also known for his sense of

calm and safety. None of his workers were ever killed while putting out oil

well or gas fires. He described his work this way: "It scares you -- all the

noise, the rattling, the shaking. But the look on everyone's face, when you

are finished and packing, it is the best smile in the world; and there is

nobody hurt, and the well is under control."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

One of Red Adair's most important projects was in nineteen sixty-two. He and

his crew put out a natural gas fire in the Sahara Desert in Algeria. The fire

had been burning for six months. This famous fire was called the "Devil's

Cigarette Lighter." Fire from the natural gas well shot about one hundred

forty meters into the air. The fire was so big that American astronaut John

Glenn could see it from space as he orbited Earth. The desert sand around the

well had melted into glass from the extreme heat. News reports said Adair

used about three hundred forty kilograms of nitroglycerine explosive material

to pull the oxygen out of the fire.

VOICE TWO:

Adair's success with the "Devil's Cigarette Lighter" and earlier well fires

captured the imagination of the American film industry. In nineteen sixty-

eight, Hollywood made an action film called "Hellfighters." It was loosely

based on events in Red Adair's life. Actor John Wayne played an oil well

firefighter from Houston, Texas whose life was similar to Adair's. Adair

served as an advisor to Wayne while the film was being made. The two men

became close friends. Adair said one of the best honors in the world was to

have John Wayne play him in a movie.