The Red Adair Co., Inc. presents “The Devil’s Cigarette Lighter.” This circa 1962 color film features the first person narration of famed oil well fire fighter Red Adair, who takes you step by step as he and his fire fighters (including Boots Hansen and Coots Mathews) extinguished the oil well fire that put the Red Adair Company on the map and made him a celebrity. The natural gas well fire was nicknamed “The Devil’s Cigarette Lighter. The fire, in the Sahara Desert of Algeria, ignited in 1961 when a pipe ruptured on a Phillips Petroleum Company-owned well. The blowout and fire were estimated to have consumed enough gas to supply Paris for three months. After burning almost six months, the fire was extinguished by Adair by using explosives to deprive the flame of oxygen. The incident became the basis of the film Hellfighter starring John Wayne in the role of Adair.
The film opens with scenes from the Sahara and the fire (mark 01:37), as Adair explains how he and his crews had to dig for water to first try to extinguish the blaze. His calm and reassuring drawl covers each step of the operation as he is occasionally asked questioned about the project. At mark 08:17 streams of water are shown cooling the area before work crews moved in, and at mark 11:30 viewers get a close-up look of the flames. After attacking the base of the fire with water, Adair is shown at mark 14:00 preparing drums which will hold the explosives that eventually be used to extinguish the blaze. He carefully explains the process as events plays out on screen, and the camera shakes at mark 16:25 as the explosives go off. By mark 18:50, Adair uses to diagrams to further explain the process used to extinguish the Devil’s Cigarette Lighter before returning to footage that includes preparing to cap the well (mark 22:55). Following a series of more graphics and preparation, the flow of gas is finally shut off at mark 30:32.
Paul Neal “Red” Adair (June 18, 1915 – August 7, 2004) was an American oil well firefighter. He became notable as an innovator in the highly specialized and hazardous profession of extinguishing and capping oil well blowouts, both land-based and offshore.
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
