Free Republic

Lagoon May be Needed to Tackle Oil Fires By BRUCE STANLEY .c The Associated Press A shortage of water and an equipment failure prevented firefighters on Monday from quenching the last fires raging at sabotaged oil wells in one of Iraq's biggest oil fields. American and Kuwaiti firefighters working in Iraq's Rumeila South field still hope to put out the remaining two fires within a week, but the setbacks could delay their timetable. ``If I don't get more than 45 minutes of water, we'll be here 'til the next war,'' said Brian Krause, president of Boots & Coots International Well...

KUWAIT CITY (AP) -- Fighting around the southern Iraq oil fields that U.S.-led forces had previously thought were secure has driven out civilian firefighters trying to put out the oil well blazes, the top firefighter said Monday. ``It's not nearly as safe as they said it was,'' said Brian Krause, vice president and senior blowout specialist for Houston-based Boots and Coots. ``We're kind of sitting ducks out there.'' The Iraqi resistance in the oil fields challenges U.S. claims that southern Iraq is quickly falling under allied control. U.S. Marines declared the southern Rumailah oil fields in Iraq unsafe for journalists...