Red Adair's Obituary in Houston Chronicle
Christine
Chris in Pearland, TX
Famed oil field firefighter Red Adair dies at age 89
By DANNY PEREZ and RASHA MADKOUR
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
Legendary Houston oil field firefighter Paul "Red" Adair, renowned worldwide
for battling some of the fiercest oil fires in modern times, died Saturday
of natural causes. He was 89.
Adair had been in and out of the hospital over the last few years for
various reasons but was full of vigor after retiring from fighting fires,
his daughter, Robyn Adair, said.
"He had been battling different diseases off and on. He was elderly and had
issues with his health," she said.
She said fighting fires was her father's passion. "He knew his talents for
putting out oil-well fires was a God-given gift and he was thankful for
that," she said. "He was very energetic and quick on his feet."
Around the world, governments and billionaires sought out Adair to battle
and cap their raging oil field fires. He spent nearly five decades putting
out fires and was renowned as the best in his profession.
"He's probably up there right now telling Jesus how to rearrange things,"
joked Sunny Abel, a granddaughter who gave birth to Adair's first
great-grandchild, 15-month-old Emma. "That's how he did his life, he was
just so meticulous and so intelligent."
Adair got his start in 1946 working for Myron Kinley, a pioneer of well-fire
and blowout control in Houston. In 1959, Adair bought Kinley's equipment for
$125 and started his own business.
Within a few years, Adair and his crew were battling a fire at a natural gas
well in the Sahara Desert known as The Devil's Cigarette Lighter.
Flames shot 800 feet into the air with a sound that shook the ground for
miles. Within a half mile of the well, the desert sand was melted into glass
from the intense heat.
After deciding that digging under the natural gas well would be too
dangerous, Adair put out the fire with a single blast from 750 pounds of
nitroglycerine.
"Got it on the first shot," he was quoted as saying in a 1994 Houston
Chronicle article.
His company brought 119 well fires under control in Kuwait, out of about 700
that were torched by the Iraqis.
But Adair himself has had some close calls. He was working on a well near
Falfurrias, in South Texas, in the 1940s when an explosion under the
platform propelled him upward through the derrick for an estimated 50 to 60
feet. He escaped without injury.
On a job near Weatherford, Adair was holding a handful of blasting caps with
dynamite at his feet, when a bulldozer operator carelessly drove over the
electric wires leading to the caps. Heralded jobs performed by Adair
included extinguishing a massive offshore blaze at Bay Marchand, La., in
1970; the Bravo offshore blowout in the North Sea in 1977; the Ixtoc blowout
in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979; and the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988 that
killed 167 men on a North Sea platform.
Adair was the inspiration for a 1968 movie called Hellfighters, starring
John Wayne. Adair said he got to be friends with Wayne while serving as a
technical adviser for the movie, and even took the actor to see a real
blowout.
Adair Red put out fires in Kuwait in 1965; Algeria in 1972; Gaylord, Mich.,
in 1977; Sumatra in 1978; Libya in 1979; Mexico in 1980; and Germany in
1981.
Capping wells and fighting some of the most dangerous fires came
second-nature and he welcomed the challenges such as the fires in Kuwait
during the first Gulf War. "It wasn't that big of deal to him. Everything
happened so quick. The most difficult thing about Kuwait was there was so
many of them," Robyn Adair said.
Adair, one of eight children of Mary and Charles Adair, grew up in Houston.
He was born June 18, 1915, in Houston. He attended Harvard Elementary School
and Hogg Junior High School, and dropped out of Reagan High School to help
support his family.
He enlisted in the Army in 1945 and served in the 139th Bomb Disposal
Squadron through the end of World War II.
Adair is survived by his wife of 64 years, Kemmie; a son, Jimmy; a daughter,
Robyn; grandchildren, Sunny Abel, Paul Hinson and Derek Adair; and a
great-granddaughter.