More Teams Lined Up to Fight Oil Fires, Kuwaiti Official Says

The oil minister of Kuwait, desperate to resume its oil production, said he is hiring firefighters from China, Iran, the Soviet Union and three European nations in the battle to snuff out hundreds of wells set ablaze by retreating Iraqi troops at the end of the Persian Gulf War.

Oil Minister Hamoud Rogba told a Kuwaiti newspaper Saturday that 23 firefighting teams from China, France, Britain, Iran, Romania and the Soviet Union will be signed up this week.

He said five new U.S. firms and another Canadian company will also be summoned in the effort to extinguish the costly fires.

“We are losing $120 million every day in oil wasted,” the minister said. “Add to this the cost of firefighting and total losses could reach $30 billion if we finish this in a year.”

Meanwhile, two Texas firefighters battling blazing oil wells in Kuwait suffered serious burns while capping a wellhead in the Ahmadi oil field, a witness said Sunday. The two injured Texans were not identified.

“One minute they were standing near the gusher they had just put out and the next minute it was on fire again,” said Jim Deckard, a Los Angeles-based film maker producing a documentary on the firefighters.

The incident Saturday in the oil field south of Kuwait city could not immediately be confirmed by the Houston outfit in charge of the well, Boots & Coots.