NEWS: Firefighter Red Adair dies at 89

The world is mourning a brave man who died from natural causes last night. Red Adair, the famous firefighter who tackled blazes from his local home to the Piper Alpha blaze in the north sea, died in Texas aged 89. He was famously called in to put out the fires lit by the retreating Iraqi army in Kuwait in 1991.



To be honest I never actually heard much about this man until I remembered something about the Piper Alpha blaze in the north sea.

To be able to tackle fires for the length of time he did and to be able to survive and be able to joke about it in later life, I really think this guy should be given a special lifetime achievment award.

Rest in peace







Related News Links:
www.redadair.com
www.oceanstaroec.com

[edit on 8-8-2004 by John bull 1]

[edit on 8-8-2004 by Valhall]

Oh...how sad. What a great "American character".

He was truly something else.

Well, Hell's gonna become a lot wetter if he doesn't get his aircon!

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

Shoot me if I am wrong but the Red Adair Company is considered to be the best at this sort of thing? I am sure Paul "Red" Adair will be greatly missed by those who worked and knew him best.

"I really think this guy should be given a special lifetime achievment award"
and I to do agree with gryffen on this one.

Red Adaire was an amazing man, with an amazing life story.

However there are others in his field who are pretty good as well, take this guy, Red Rangi...



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When a large oil well caught fire the company sent out a call for Red Adaire to come a put the fire out.

Adiare assembled his team and went at once to the inferno. Standing off about a half mile from the well he was busy assessing the fire and determining how to attack the flames, when a ute from Red Rangi Firefighters roared past leaving a trail of dust right into the center of the inferno.

There were loud screams and yells from the fire as people piled out of the ute and started beating out the flames with wet sacks.

Much to Adaire's surprise the fire was extinguished and the exhausted men climbed back into their ute and drove up to where Red was standing with his mouth open in shock.

Red said to them "That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. We were going to get 1 million dollars for putting the fire out and we feel it only fair that you receive the fee instead".

Red Rangi expressed his gratitude to the oil baron.

"Tell me." said Adaire, " That's a lot of money, what you will do with all that?"

"Well, " said Red Rangi, " The first thing we are gonna do is get the brakes on that ute fixed."

Firefighters are heros, they get paid next to nothing and they still put their own lives on the line to save that extra soul. The WTC event really shed some light on the brevity of the firefighters and once again brought the world to realize Firefighters are heros.

Red Adair's Company was singular in excellence for many years and then in the late 70's a couple a folks that worked for him formed a company called Boot's and Coot's. Not to challenge but to be there. In those days of heady drilling there were blowouts everywhere. I was on a few jobs with his company in the Gulf Coast area in those days and met him briefly ounce. Then in the 90's in Kuwait a young company out of Canada named Safety Boss arrived on scene with a high tech new approach to securing a well head very impressive and quick nothing short of revolutionary. They were capping wells left and right if memory serves me they put out about half the fires. And Boots Coots and Adair got the other half.
Beyond doubt he was a true innovative American Pioneer and Hero. His memory will always be held in high esteem by every piece of American Oilfield Trash. And I am sure that tales of his exploits will live forever.

Tut

p.s. The Devil would never allow Red into hell. If he did that would be the end of Hell

A sad day indeed.
Red Adair was 89 when he died. That would put in the the range of 75+ years old when he battled the oil fires in Kuwait.
I hope I am half that active when I get to his age.