KUWAIT: Aerial views of Kuwait show oil well fires still burning out of control

Record ID: 344576

  • Title: KUWAIT: Aerial views of Kuwait show oil well fires still burning out of control
  • Date: 10th March 1991
  • Summary: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, KUWAIT (MARCH 10, 1991)(VISNEWS) AERIALS OF KUWAIT CITY PAST WATER TOWER SHOTS OF FLATS COMPLEX REMAINING SEA DEFENCES SHOWING BURNED OUT TANK IRAQI-BUILT TRENCHES AND PILL BOX ROAD TO BASRA NORTH OF KUWAIT CITY WITH BURNED OUT VEHICLES BURNING OIL WELL BURNED OUT REFINERY HUGE FIRES FROM WELL CLOSE UP OF BLAZE OIL ON GROUND AROUND WELL WELLS BURNING IN DESERT
  • Embargoed: 25th March 1991 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VARIOUS locATIONS, KUWAIT
  • Country: Kuwait
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Nature / Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVAO1V403CA9TECJJD51G61WMQL
  • Story Text: Aerial views of Kuwait on Sunday (March 10) showed fierce oil well fires continuing to burn out of control. In Kuwait City, Iraqi coastal defences remain in place, ready to repel the amphibious assault that never came, while the road to Basra north of the city is still littered with burned out vehicles hit by allied bombs in the last days of the war.
    Smoke from around 800 burning oil wells has turned the midday sun black. Because of the smoke, the temperature near the oilfields has dropped by 10 degrees Celsius, and polluted black rain has fallen on Kuwait and neighbouring Iran and Iraq.
    The destruction does not end there. The day before the Iraqis fled they torched and bombed the Mein Abdullah oil plant, one of the largest oil refineries in the world. One eyewitness described how the pipes, two oil tanks, and the sea were set alight in the blaze.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register