08 Aug 2004 18:35 UTC
Mr. Adair spent a lifetime using explosives to fight oil fires at locations ranging from the Sahara Desert to the North Sea.
He was the inspiration for a 1968 film called "Hellfighters," starring Hollywood movie icon John Wayne.
Mr. Adair boasted that none of his employees ever suffered a serious injury fighting the dangerous fires, and neither did he. When he passed away Saturday in Texas, it was due to natural causes.
Some information for this report provided by AP.
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The world-renowned champion of putting out oil well fires, Paul "Red" Adair, has died at age 89.
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He is best known for his work in Kuwait after the 1991 Gulf War, when he and his company extinguished 117 of the burning oil well fires set by fleeing Iraqi troops.