Fires of Kuwait

Journey through Kuwait while the oil wells were fully ablaze during the Gulf war in 1991.

Here, teams from all over the world battled to extinguish the flames covering the oil-filled landscapes.

With the fears of a nuclear winter developing, and experts detailing theories about clouds of smoke covering half of the Northern Hemisphere lowering temperatures by 5-10 Celsius, the teams had to work hard and fast.

In order to both save the oil resources and reduce air pollution, the teams developed different techniques of extinguishing the fires.

From TNT-shockwaves blowing out the flames to Tank-mounted twin MIG-jet-engines (from Hungary) blasting away the flames (and nearly lifting the tank into the air), man’s emergency creativity can be seen at it’s best.