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In Kuwait on July 3, 1991, a Boots and Coots oil well firefighting specialist guides a stinger that will pump drilling mud into the damaged well. A stinger is a tapered pipe on the end of a long steel boom controlled by a bulldozer. Drilling mud, under high pressure, is pumped through the stinger into the well, stopping the flow of oil and gas. Many of the wells are 10,000 feet deep and produce huge volumes of oil and gas under tremendous pressure, which makes capping them difficult and dangerous. More than 700 wells were set ablaze by retreating Iraqi troops creating the largest man-made environmental disaster in history.

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©Peter Menzel, www.menzelphoto.com
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Kuwait, Kuwait Oil Well Fires
In Kuwait on July 3, 1991, a Boots and Coots oil well firefighting specialist guides a stinger that will pump drilling mud into the damaged well. A stinger is a tapered pipe on the end of a long steel boom controlled by a bulldozer. Drilling mud, under high pressure, is pumped through the stinger into the well, stopping the flow of oil and gas. Many of the wells are 10,000 feet deep and produce huge volumes of oil and gas under tremendous pressure, which makes capping them difficult and dangerous. More than 700 wells were set ablaze by retreating Iraqi troops creating the largest man-made environmental disaster in history.
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