Paul ”Red” Adair, whose firefighting exploits made him a household name around the world, has died at the age of 89.
Adair risked his life many times in a career that spanned six decades. He is credited with extinguishing more than 2 000 land and offshore oil well fires, including the explosion on the Piper Alpha platform in the North Sea in 1988, which killed 167 men.
He successfully contained the hundreds of oil wells left blazing after the Iraqis fled from Kuwait at the end of the first Gulf war in 1991.
His daredevil reputation led to a 1968 film, Hellfighters, in which he was played by John Wayne — something Adair described as ”one of the best honours in the world”. He earned his nickname because of his fiery hair, and played up to it by always dressing in red overalls, helmet and boots when in action.
Adair was born in Texas in 1915 and after school worked as a labourer, first on the railways and then in the oil fields. While he was working on an oil derrick a valve blew, and instead of running for cover he stayed and repaired the damage.
In his 20s he joined Myron Kinley, a Houston oil fire expert, before setting up his own business. He quickly built a reputation as a firefighter and went on to become the most respected troubleshooter in the oil business, revolutionising the science of capping exploding and burning wells.
In 1991 he joked about his own death. ”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.” – Guardian Unlimited Â